Cleaved
by KioBowden
Summary: Star and Marco go on epic adventures across different dimensions. One day Marco learns that he can use magic like star, but this new found power causes problems for him and Star, and a confession leaves them both confused and in pain. My first story, still trying to get some things worked out.
1. Chapter 1

**Author Notes: Hey guys Kio here. So this is my fanfic ever, actually my first written story ever. I apologize in advanced for the grammatical errors I tried to get everything right, and also sorry if the characters aren't exactly true to themselves. I'm trying my best XD. Honestly i'm so excited about this I hope you guys like it.**

 **Another thing the timing of the story is kinda weird. So I'm having this take place after the events of the first season. I will try to mention it but honestly my mind is so scattered with this story. I also might write about a couple of events that went on in some episodes such as Sleepover but for the most part I'm gonna wing it. Also later on I plan to have this story go past the events of BonBon, again I might reference it I might write about it im not sure.**

 **Right now lets just focus on this part. Sorry for the long ass monologue IDK what to do for this part, again first story here. Now without further ado, here is my story.**

 **I do not own Star Vs the Forces of Evil, or any of the characters except for the ones I make. You should definitely watch the show one of my favorites.**

Marco looked at the locker right in front of him. It was just like his locker at school; in fact it was his school locker. It had the indent from where Marco leaned on it every morning waiting for Jackie Lynn Thomas. He reached for the combination lock but stopped.

"I forgot my combination:, he said to himself breaking into a cold sweat. He looked at the lock again only to see that it had disappeared. However, before he could question it the locker door flew open. Inside filling up the locker were purple hearts, much like the ones that Star grew during her Mewberty phase. He reached out to the hearts and before he could touch them they flew away. Then he saw himself. Another Marco was standing in his locker, dressed in a suit that looked really familiar. His double opened his eyes, scaring Marco and causing him to fall backwards. His double opened his mouth to speak and out came

 _Beep, Beep, Beep_

"What?"

His double started walking out of the locker, staring at him.

 _Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep_

Marco gasped as he opened his eyes. It took him a full five seconds to realize that it had just been a dream, and that the beeping was coming from his alarm clock. He turned the alarm off and sighed. Rubbing the sweat from his forehead he thought about his dream. It wasn't the first time he had had that dream. Always the same, he woke up not knowing where he was. He would find a rabid star chewing on a belt, and then he would find another Marco in his locker filled with purple hearts. Usually the dream continued to his friends flying away with red balloons before he had a chance to fly to them a red moon appeared.

He didn't know what the dream meant, or why he kept having it. Maybe it was stress getting to him; but he didn't really have anything to stress about, except for his roommate. Princess Star Butterfly, next in line to be queen of her home dimension, Mewni, was somewhat of a wildchild. She was sent to Earth after burning down the royal castle. Her parents thought that it would be safer for Star to learn magic on Earth where monsters wouldn't attack her. Also the fact that someone else's property was getting destroyed was a plus.

Unfortunately their plan didn't work out. During her move a monster tracked her to Earth, after reporting to his boss, a short vulture like monster named Ludo, Star and Marco were often payed a visit by unwelcomed guests. But thanks to Stars magic wand, a family heirloom that Ludo has his sights on, and Marco's karate skills they were easily able to defeat the uncoordinated monsters. The fact that she was in constant danger from attacks, and that she often traveled to dangerous dimensions, caused Marco to worry about her. After she had settled into his house, and after destroying his room, and restoring it a portal had opened up in his room.

The only other time he had seen a portal was when Ludo and his monsters had left after getting their butts kicked. So as the portal opened he swore to himself and prepared for a fight. Instead of a monster crawling through an armed guard dressed in full battle armor and holding a staff walked through. The man said nothing as he checked Marco's room making sure that all was clear. He remained silent as he walked over to the door and closed it. Only then did he look at Marco, he cleared his throat.

"His highness, King Butterfly requests a conference with you." Before Marco could even think about a reply a short man, about 5. 2' walked through the portal. The first thing that Marco noticed about the man, and it wasn't just because the knight had announced it, was the fact that the man looked regal. He was wearing a light blue shirt, which was adorned by a cape. While the man was short he looked sturdy, almost as if a truck could hit him and he wouldn't budge an inch. Two other things caught his attention. The first was the silver staff the man held. Reaching a good two feet above the man it was a simple silver staff, with a small sapphire on the bottom. On the top was stone, too blue to be saphire, Marco determined. It was in the shape of a crescent moon, with a small star attached to the middle of it. The other thing that Marco noticed was the crown resting on top of the man's head. If anything else about his outfit didn't scream royalty the crown certainly did,

Not sure as to what to do Marco just stood there in silence as the man surveyed his surroundings. His gaze rested on Marco's laptop for a second before focusing in on the poster of Marco's favorite movie _Hands of Karate._ The man moved across the room and sat on Marco's bed.

Once he had settled down King Butterfly looked at the shocked boy. 'Better get on with this' the king thought.

"I am sure you are wondering who I am and why I am here?" The boy just nodded, unable to fully speak yet. "You have no doubt met my daughter Star,"

"Wait you are Stars dad?" Marco asked recovering his ability to speak. That would explain the royal look of the man in front of him. Marco sat down at his desk turning the chair to face the king. He felt as if he was in an important meeting, he probably was i mean why else would a king travel across dimensions just to talk to him? For a split second Marco wondered if he had done something wrong to warrant this visit; but he quickly dismissed it. If the king was here to arrest him he would have surely done so by now.

"Yes I am. As to why I am here, I have a favor to ask of you." Marco straighten up curiosity rising in him. What favor would a king need him for. Certainly he had hundreds of servants he could order to do whatever he wanted to.

"I need you to look after Star. She needs a guide while she is here on Earth, and she needs someone to protect her."

Marco blinked, "wait wait wait. How am I going to protect her? Wouldn't she be better off with an armed guard, I mean I'm just one kid."

The king smiled, "I have seen what you can do. I figured there would be those who would want to take Star's wand, thinking that a teenage girl would be no match for them. That's why I sent a scout to make sure that she was safe and after that battle i knew that she was. You may be one boy, and while your fighting skills may not be the greatest, you are brave and I see that you care about her."

Again Marco blinked, he realized that he did care about Star, while he may have just met her he felt a need to protect her. She seemed innocent, and she had worked so hard to make him feel better after destroying his room. But he had also never been called brave. He had never had a chance to prove himself and he recognized the fact that the king was giving him that chance, albeit it was for the king's gain as much as Marco's. The stocky man continued.

"Now I am well aware of the danger that you may face and the trouble that Star can cause so I am willing to pay you for her protection." Immediately Marco started objecting, despite the dangers that her presence may cause, Marco was going to protect Star because he wanted to, not because he was being paid to.

The man stopped him before Marco could protest too much. "It is very honorable of you boy, but unnecessary. You will be reimbursed for your troubles in any way that you wish. What is it that you want? Gold, land, a knightship, or perhaps a servant? We can get anyone that you like you are of that age so if you so wish we would give you your own concubines…"

"Whoa whoa t-that… won't, heh, be n-necessary," Marco stammered out, sweating nervously. He was fourteen and while he had been having those thoughts and those urges, the thought of having a slave to… satisfy him as the king said was unthinkable.

"Alright then," the king smiled at the boys honorability. Not many would pass up the chance for riches or a knighthood. The king knew that the boy could be trusted, and while he wished to have an entire army to protect his daughter, he knew that they must remain subtle and not draw too much attention to themselves. The royal family had more dangerous enemies that that gang of infants Marco and Star had faced earlier.

The king got up off the bed signaling to the guard to open the portal. "You may not want anything right now but the offer still stands. If you wish for anything that we can give you then do not hesitate to ask. I will leave you now, I have many kingly things to do." The king walked towards the portal and had a whole leg in before he turned around.

"One more thing, Marco," he said using the boy's name for the first time. "I wish to thank you for taking on this duty of protecting Star. Not many would willingly house her knowing what they were to be up against. With that being said I have another request." The man's voice changed, becoming more serious and grave.

"Please do not fail. She is our only daughter and the most important person in our lives. Make sure she is safe." With that the king gave Marco a sad smile and disappeared through the portal. The guard followed him, leaving Marco alone to digest what had just happened.

Beep, Beep, Beep

Marco was jostled from his flashback by his secondary alarm. Cursing to himself he jumped out of bed to prepare for the day. He had to get to school early so he could do his daily routine of seeing Jackie every morning.

 **Woo end of Chapter one. I really hope you guys liked it. Sorry that its just set up right now, i promise I will try to make it more interesting in Chapter two.**

 **I plan on making this a longish story so thats why i feel the need to have quite an intro. Thanks so much for reading, please leave a review anything would really help me. Feel free to leave suggestions for what you want to see in the story I dont have much planed in the way of filler.**

 **Also check me out on Twitter KioBowden ill respond to any comment or suggestions there. Thanks hope to see you again.**


	2. Chapter 2

**One chapter in and I already have three followers, *sniff* I'm so happy. So this chapter has some Jarco, ugh i know right, but some shit happens.**

 **I plan on making this story a long one so hopefully i'm doing ok with the setup. School is about to start again soon so I gotta write a ton, hopefully ill be able to keep writing when the semester starts.**

 **I would like to ask you guys a favor. Please leave a review, i need some feedback on how im doing. Thanks so much and without further ado**

Chapter 2 - Hurt

Him and Star were walking to school, Star was talking excitedly to him about a dream she had had. Something about fighting Ludo using only a laser puppy. Suddenly she asked, "What about you? Did ya have any awesome dreams"

Marco looked down thinking of his recurring dream, or nightmare he should say since he woke up from it sweating and out of breath. Star looked at him worriedly, "Did you have that nightmare again?"

"Yeah, I don't understand why i keep having it, or what it means. And i'm having it more often. It used to be once in awhile but now its every other night."

"Don't worry i'm sure it's just stress getting to your head. I'm sure it's nothing to worry about."

Marco looked at his best friend. Star was such a good friend to him. They had been friends for about a year now and while they had some rough patches they had always been able to recover from it. The short blond looked up at him with blue eyes filled with concern . Star looked like she did every other day. She had her hair down to her knees which were covered by striped blue stockings ending in her pink boots that she always wore. She was also wearing a colorful striped tank top which was covering a teal dress. Marco couldn't help but noticing how attractive she was. She always had a pep in her step, and a twinkle in her eye. While she looked like a sweet innocent girl, Marco knew that she was incredibly strong for her size and could kick serious ass. She never failed to make him happy, one time Marco was having a seriously rough day where nothing seemed to go right. Star had tried everything she could to cheer him up, eventually resulting to being swallowed by a fish she was trying to juggle. And here she was trying to cheer him up again. He couldn't help but be thankful that she came into his life.

She tapped him lightly on the forehead, "Earth to Marcooo. Stop spacing out ya weirdo, were gonna be late for school." She was right they had about ten minutes until Jackie got to school. This was the day that he talked to her. Well that he had a conversation with her. Marco having had a crush on Jackie since kindergarten had only recently gotten up the courage to speak to her. Usually it was one or two words followed by a lot of uhs and uhms. Today he would finally get up his courage and talk to her.

They arrived with minutes to spare. While he waited Marco walked over to his locker and got his books out, putting them in his backpack. After he had made sure that he had all the books he needed he slung his backpack on his shoulder and leaned against the locker. Kids were starting to file in many of them stopping by their lockers just like he did. Some distance away he saw his friends Alfonso and Ferguson. They were staring at a girl who was coming their way, as she passed them Ferguson lifted his shirt showing his gut with a face painted on it. From this distance Marco couldn't hear what he said but he could see that Ferguson was making his stomach talk. The girl, looking disgusted, slapped Ferguson's face and then his stomach before walking away.

Marco chuckled to himself then felt a thud next to him. Star had leaned against the locker next to him facing the other direction. She was staring at the parking lot where a black, long haired boy was sitting on the hood of his beat up car playing the keytar. Just last year the sound of Oscar jamming out would have sent students running with their ears covered in pain. Over the summer he had gotten better, much better. There were a few people who enjoyed his music, one of them being star.

"I still don't get why you like him. He doesn't do anything but complain about his mom and play the keytar." Marco said leaning his head on Star's. They used to be the same height but over the summer Marco had hit a growth spurt that made him almost a head taller than her. At first Star complained that he was taller than her and that Marco gave her such a hard time. But she had come to like it when Marco put his head on hers.

"He's just so dreamy," Star said in a whisper,"But you know i don't want to date him or anything, I just like the eye candy."

Marco scoffed, he knew Star had gotten over her crush for Oscar. She asked him out once and found out that they had absolutely nothing in common. He just liked giving her a hard time for it.

"Besides at least I had the guts to ask him out. You can't even get a sentence out when you are around her." She turned around looking up at him. "Sorry." She said when she noticed the look in his eyes.

"It's alright. It's not like you're wrong. But that will change today, because today I will hold a conversation with her," he said puffing his chest out.

"Haha, well you better get ready because here she comes." Marco gasped and quickly turned around, completely missing the eye roll that star gave him. Marco lost sight of everything else as he spotted her. Jackie Lynn Thomas, in Marco's opinion the most beautiful girl in school. He watched as she got closer, her platinum blond hair floating behind her as she rode in on her skateboard. She was wearing her usual white shirt with green collar and sleeves. She also was wearing white knee high socks with jean shorts that while they might have gone out of style years ago were coming back in because of her. Around her neck was a seashell necklace. She slowed down as she neared Marco even going as far as to get off her skateboard.

"Hey Marco, hey Star," She said. Star replied instantly but it took Marco a bit until he could give a small hi.

'Man up Diaz, she's just like any other girl. Think of her like Star, you're so open with star. Be the same with Jackie.

"YOU LOOK PRETTY TODAY", he shouted. 'What the fuck are you doing Diaz?' he asked himself 'I don't know it just happened.' He replied.

Jackie blushed a little, "Oh t-thank you. You look really good too Marco. Red looks really good on you."

Could he believe his ears? Was Jackie Lynn Thomas, THE Jackie Lynn Thomas saying that he looked good? Marco could have just died right then and there. The hottest girl in school just said that she thought that he, the "safe kid" looked good. 'Quick say something', his mind yelled, springing him into action.

Act cool he thought, just say thanks and then go on from there. So naturally the first thing he did was fall. He gave a yelp as he hit the cold tile, wondering what just happened. Then he felt a hand on his arm pulling him up. He got up and looked to see that it was Jackie lifting him up.

"Are you ok?" she said concern in her voice.

She cares if I got hurt or not, Marco thought. Then quickly responded as he realized that he had been silent.

"Yeah i'm fine, just got a little dizzy."

"Oh, are you ok? Do you need to go to the nurse's office?"

Why so you can do a check up on me? For whatever reason Marco's thoughts turned to Jackie wearing a sexy nurse outfit asking him where it hurt. He shook his head clearing his head, this was not the time for that.

"N-no i'm fine, thanks. Guess I fell pretty hard for you huh?" he cringed, his face getting redder as he beat himself for using the cheesiest line ever. 'You dumbass! What in the actual hell were you thinking?!' 'I wasn't ok? I don't know what the fuck i'm doing, help!'

He looked up to see Jackie blushing almost as much as he was. Oh god he embarrassed her. She probably thinks that he was such a creep. But before he could explain she smiled. Oh my God she's so beautiful.

"That was a good one." she said still smiling. She frowned and noticed that she was still holding on to his arm. Quickly taking her hand off him she picked up her skateboard. "Well I gotta go meet Janna. I'll see you later Marco."

"Yeah see ya." He watched as she threw the board onto the ground and jumped on it; riding away.

"Did you see that Star? I actually talked to Jackie Lynn Thomas, and she talked back to me! I can't believe it."

"Yeah, great you talked to a girl. Whoopdie fucking doo." Marco looked at her in shock. She almost never cursed and the fact that she seemed less than thrilled for him talking to his crush for the first time angered him.

"What's wrong with you? This is huge for me; i've never talked to Jackie before, much less flirt with her. What's wrong?"

"I just don't think that it's such a big deal. I mean you talk to girls all the time, why is she so different?" Star asked.

"Because she is different Star. She's nice, and smart.."

"So am I and I have magical powers, and helloooo? Future queen of a whole dimension anyone?" She replied throwing her hands in the air. Star was getting upset now.

"Well she also doesn't go on dangerous adventures," Marco started taking a step towards Star. "She's also beautiful and perfect and I don't know why you are so upset."

"You don't think I'm beautiful?" her voice broke. She had her head down so Marco couldn't see what her face looked like but he knew he had hurt her. He didn't know why she was making such a big deal out of this, or why he said what he did. But he knew that he had hurt her and that was all that mattered right now.

"Star it's not that, of course you are beautiful, I was just…"

"Just what, Marco? You were just comparing me to Jackie?" Marco was scared now, Star looked at him betrayal and hurt on her face. But that wasn't the only thing; her eyes which were normally blue were now green. "Jackie is so purfect, who could ever hope to measure up to her?" She was crying now, tears streaming profusely down her face. Marco didn't know what to do he wasn't trying to compare her and Jackie. He knew he had to say something though. He couldn't just let Star think that he had meant to hurt her.

"Star, please liste…" Before he could get another word out she ran. Marco wanted to chase after her but his legs wouldn't move. He wouldn't even know what to say to her; he was so confused on what was going on. All he could do is stare at where she was, hoping that everything would be ok.

 **Holy shit. I did not plan to have it go this way but inspiration hit me like a train. Marco you done goofed.**

 **Alright so being the wordy person I am, I plan on making this a long one. Just letting yall know something does happen between those two, good and bad and something awesome happens to Marco.**

 **Please leave a comment I could really use some help, hows my writing, what do you wish to see in the story, those kind of things. Thanks again for reading.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Ok forewarning. I could not think of a good way to end this. Sorry but i just could not figure it out. Hopefully it's not so bad. I don't really have much to say for this chapter, just I have an overall idea of where I want this story to go but I don't really know how to get it to there.**

 **IDK i'll think of something. In the meantime have fun reading and also if you wouldn't mind leaving a comment, a suggestion for the story of a critique of how i've been doing so far would be great. Thanks so much for reading guys and without a further ado:**

Chapter 3.

Star was hunched in a closet crying. She didn't know why but Marco's words had hurt her. He just didn't see her like he saw Jackie. The way he used her full name whenever referring to her, it just made Star sick every time. It wasn't like Star liked Marco, at least not more than a friend, but sometimes she just wished that he would see her like he saw Jackie. That being said his words still hurt her. She felt a pain in her chest and gasped. It felt like she was being stabbed and a new wave of tears came.

'Get a grip on yourself,' a part of her said, 'you are fucking queen to be of Mewni and here you are crying like a little girl who lost her favorite doll. Get over yourself.' Oddly enough the voice sounded like her mother, even though her mother had never cussed in front of Star. Some time passed with Star just sitting there trying to stop herself from sobbing before she got up. She left the broom closet and walked across the hall into the bathroom. There she washed her face to get rid of some of the blotchiness. Marco might not think that she is beautiful or anything but Star still wanted to look her best. Suddenly the door burst open.

Star turned and saw a raven haired girl, wearing a cheerleader's outfit walk in. Brittney Wong, most popular girl in school and captain of the cheerleading squad looked at Star with a face of disgust.

"What are you doing here?" the cheerleader asked.

Innocently Star replied, "Nothing, just finishing up." She didn't want Brittney to know that she had been crying.

"Well hurry up, i need to fix my hair," As if she needed the whole bathroom to fix her hair. Nevertheless Star left the restroom. She looked at the clock closest to her; she had missed her first two classes and was running late for the third one. 'Already missed three classes why not just miss the rest of them?' Star thought to herself. She knew that she shouldn't skip school but she wasn't really up to sitting next to Marco all day; not while the fight was still fresh in her mind. She started walking home, for the first time by herself.

Marco was worried. Star hadn't shown up for any of their classes today, that wasn't like her. He knew that he had hurt her this morning but he didn't see why she should skip because of it. He still didn't understand what was going on. He had spent his first two classes replaying the incident in his head wondering where he had gone wrong. Probably saying she wasn't good looking was one thing, but him and Star were friends nothing more. He just did not understand why she was angry with him. He sighed and looked at the clock, there was 15 more minutes until fourth period ended. After school he would find Star and talk to her.

After school ended he raced home. He couldn't wait anymore he needed to talk to Star. After slamming the front door closed he raced upstairs. He took a moment to drop off his stuff and compose himself. He knocked on Stars door.

"Come in" He heard. He opened the door just enough to poke his head in. He looked around Star's room eyeing the stairs that led to the second and third floor. When she had first moved here Star had deemed her room unsuitable for a princess. So she used a spell to make it more… her style. It ended up adding a large turret to the left side of the house, and contained many things that Star needed, such as her mirror, a large fluffy bed, and an amazing assortment of weapons.

He looked at her bed to see her lying there with her spell book open. The page it was turned to showed pictures of the correct forms for some spell, Marco couldn't make out what spell it was but that wasn't important right now. He walked in a little further, Star didn't look up.

"Hey, could we, um, talk for a bit?" He was nervous, he felt like this conversation was the most important one he would ever have. In a way it was. If he fucked up then his friendship with Star would be done for.

"Yeah sure," Star kept her tone flat; not wanting to show any emotion. It was a feat that her mother would be proud of, but Star wasn't doing it for her mom. Star didn't want Marco to see how much pain she was in. While she was pissed at him she also didn't want to worry him.

Star sat up and Marco made his way over, sitting next to her. He sighed, and opened his mouth to speak.

"I'm sorry." The words surprised Marco, because they weren't his. He looked up at the mewman girl and saw that she was crying. His body moved of its own accord. He wrapped his arms around her, and she embraced him back sobbing into his shoulder. Marco had no idea what was going on or while she was crying. He just knew that he had hurt her and all he wanted to do was make her feel better.

After she had calmed down a bit Marco spoke up, "I-I don't understand, Star, what are you sorry about?"

She pulled back and looked at him. "I over-reacted and was silly, I know you weren't comparing me to Jackie, I was just upset about something else and I took it out on you." She gazed up at him, hoping she had diffused the situation. Marco had no idea where that had come from. He hadn't even realized that he was comparing her and Jackie.

"Ok? Star I didn't mean to compare you to Jackie. I'm really sorry that I hurt you; i would never want that. Star im sorry." Star heard the sincerity in his voice. She knew that he never meant to hurt her. She just wanted this to be over and go back to being with her bestie.

"Thanks Marco, apology accepted. Now, hugsss." With that she threw her arms around the boy. Happy that he had his friend back he wrapped his arms around her.

"So what are you looking at?" He asked trying to diffuse the tension still built up in him.

"Oh it's this new spell that Glossaryck said I should look at. I haven't really been reading it." Marco nodded as he listened. The spellbook, one that had been in Star's family for generations contained everything. All of the spells her ancestors had created, their history, their bloodline, there was even a section that contained deadly spells. Star had yet to be granted access to that section, thanks to her mother and Glossaryck. Speaking of which where was the little blue man.

Marco looked around the room, but before he could ask the genie like man appeared.

"Did someone say my name?" Glossaryck was about three inches tall. He was blue all over his body, and had a large purple gemstone implanted in his long forehead. He was also sporting a white beard that split into two at the end. The tiny man, if you could call him that, was hovering above the book, sitting cross legged.

"Just showing Marco the new spell."

"Ah Stampede of the Warnicorns that's right. Since you should have taken a look at the incantation dance needed for it why don't we practice outside?"

"I don't know. Since I already know the moves I shouldn't have to practice it right?" Truth be told Star didn't know the incantation. She had been worrying the whole time about the fight between her and Marco, and since they had made up and were friends again she just wanted to hang out with him. But Marco and Glossaryck were of the same mind.

"Star don't you think that you should at least make sure you can do it? Just in case you get a movement wrong or something?" Having just gotten out of a fight Marco didn't want to overstep his bounds, but he knew that Star's magic training was important. Nevertheless he cringed at the look that Star gave him. While she didn't want to practice she knew that she couldn't disagree with Marco and Glossaryck. So she decided to give in.

"Fine let's go outside so I can practice; but afterwards I want nachos"

Marco chuckled, "Alright I'll make you some nachos."

"Yay", with that she skipped out the door leaving Marco to lug the heavy book downstairs and outside.

 **Damn this was a hard chapter to write. For some reason I couldn't figure out how to solve the fight between them. Sorry if it felt like a copout im making this up as I go. But hey chapter three done.**

 **Im gonna do a bit of a jump, not too much. But i would like to keep my stuff original while also keeping in the timeline of the show.**

 **I have already gotten some reviews and I tell ya they lifted my spirits a bit. To** InfamousAA thanks it makes me feel so good that you think the story is going well. I know that Star getting angry was a bit fast but I wanted some kind of dispute between them, but i definitely will work on making the transition smoother. Thanks so much tho.

And xXPokeFictionXx i would get triggered too XD. But thanks.

 **Please keep leaving comments they really boost my morale, XD. Also feel free to leave an idea you might have for the story, i know its weird me asking for ideas but im really open in this story. Hopefully soon I'll be getting to the real meat. Until then** **. Thank you for reading, I will see y'all in the next chapter.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Morning, it is currently 4am where I am at and Inspiration hit me like a wall. I hope this chapter goes well, it's a bit lengthy so sorry about that, and Oh God a two parter. I wonder what happens?**

 **Alright as always thanks for the reviews and follows I have gotten, if you have an idea that you would like to share with me about the story feel free to leave a comment or IM me on Twitter KioBowden *cough* shameless advertising :).**

 **Thanks again guys, hope you enjoy.**

Chapter 4: Saudade Part 1

"Marco! Marco! Marco! MarcOooo. MARCO!"

"What Star?" Marco replied in annoyance.

"I'm so bOored. Entertain meeee. MArcoooo." the princess called to him from his bed. She was lying across looking at Marco upside down. Meanwhile he was sitting at his desk trying his hardest to focus. But a certain Mewman girl prevented that.

"Star im trying to get this done, this paper is due tomorrow you know." Star frowned, she had already finished the paper. Granted she knew that she wasn't going to get a good grade on it but Earth school wasn't important to her; it's not like they were going to prepare her for becoming queen. She turned herself around, resting on her elbows.

"Ugh, I don't know why you work so hard, it's not like school is important. I mean it's not even fun. But you know what is fun? Fighting monsters! Let's go." Star had gotten up and grabbed her wand, ready for an adventure.

Marco turned to look at her, a smile on his face but seriousness in his eyes. He loved how energetic Star was, and honestly would rather go into another dimension and fight monsters with her. Unfortunately he couldn't; while to her school wasn't important, not everyone was a princess. Marco knew he had to work hard to get good grades, and to be able to get a job he wanted. The thing is, he didn't know what he wanted. While him and Star's class had a meeting with the guidance counselor, Mr. Candle, about their futures. Iit had turned out that he was a puppet for Tom, Star's jealous ex-boyfriend, to make sure that Marco and Star weren't dating. Marco had ended up being kidnapped by Tom after lying and saying that he and Star had become smootch buddies; how nice if that were true. 'Wait, where did that come from?' Marco snapped himself out of is thoughts.

"Star, I don't like it as much as you do but I need to get good grades. To you it seems dumb, but to me it's what decides my future." He turned back around eager to get his essay done. He should have just said that the faster he got his essay done the faster they could hang out, but he honestly welcomed the cute distraction. Wait.

"Ugh it's still dumb." Star had walked over to where Marco was sitting. She leaned over his shoulder to get a look at what he had written. The essay was supposed to be about an influential scientist, and his or her impact on the field that they were dedicated to. Star had chosen an astrononeer, or something like that. She didn't really remember who she wrote about, just someone whose first and last names sounded the same. She looked at the title of the paper and saw that it was about Charles Darwin? She didn't have any clue who he was; but she knew that if Marco chose him this Charles did something good.

Marco meanwhile was trying his hardest not to panic. The minute Star leaned over him he stiffened up, in more ways than one. She was pressing herself against him, and it made him respond in a way he had never responded before. 'Why am I like this?' he asked himself. 'She's just your friend, why is this happening.' Marco needed to do something before Star noticed something. He didn't know the physiology of Mewmans, or how much Star knew about that kind of stuff; but he really did not want to find out right now.

Making an excuse that he needed to go to the bathroom, Marco ran out of his room. After he had slammed the door shut and made sure to lock it, he sat on the toilet. Resting his head in his hands he started to think. 'It's just because she is a girl, it doesn't mean anything. He got like that around other girls.'

Marco had started noticing the girls around his school more, and his body had noticed them too. It was really awkward when at the most random times his body 'got up'. It was mostly around Jackie. Whenever she passed him, or talked to him, Marco's eyes just couldn't stop from straying down to her form. She was slender but was filled out. But it wasn't just Jackie, Marco had noticed how good looking Janna had gotten. Her skirt and boots, did wonders to Marco's mind. But it wasn't like he was attracted to Janna or anything. He knew that she was attractive, many of the guys at his school thought so. The same was with Star, Marco knew that she was attractive, especially so during a certain dance that they shared.

'It's just natural. It's nothing to be worried about.' Marco didn't even know why he was worried. Star and him were friends, there was absolutely nothing to be worried about. It was just his body reacting to being around a cute girl, that was it. He caught himself again, he realized just how often he thought of Star being cute or beautiful. Suddenly he heard a knock that made him jump.

"Marco are you ok? You've been in there for a while." It was Star, just checking up on him.

"Yeah I'm fine, I'l-I'll be out in a minute." He quickly got up and checked over himself, making sure that everything was looking normal. Satisfied he unlocked the door and walked back to his room. Star was lying on his bed reading one of the comics he had. He turned back to his desk, now more focused than before, and made quick work of his essay.

Like he promised Star, once he finished his essay they went dimension hopping. Feeling a craving for something sweet Star took them to the ice cream dimension.

"Everything here is made out of ice cream, plants, animals, everything." Just as she said that Marco saw a deer in the distance. Or at least what looked like a deer, it was shaped like a deer, but the back was colored pink, it's midsection white, and it's front was brown. It had large, light brown antlers growing from its head. Marco squinted and thought he could see a crisscrossing pattern on them, much like that of a waffle cone. Its hooves were covered in hard chocolate with sprinkles on them. While the creature looked completely edible, Marco could not imagine eating such a beautiful creature.

"Wow, this place is amazing." he looked at Star, eyes shining. She smiled at him, "I'm glad you like it, now come on let's get some ice cream." Excitedly she took his hand and ran into a building which, oddly enough, was made out of ice cream. After they had each finished their large triple scoops, they headed off into the next dimension. This one was a water themed dimension. They didn't stay very long because they weren't able to hold their breaths long enough to explore around. So they headed to another dimension that Star had in mind.

They landed inside a dark cave, or at least Marco thought it was a cave, he couldn't really tell it was so dark. "This one might be more of your style, Marco" Before he could ask what she meant she grabbed his hand and led him out of the cave.

The light blinded him for a moment, but when he regained his sight, what he saw blew him away. He looked out into the open space in front of him, and all he saw was trees. There were millions of them as far as he could see; reaching into the horizon. But not only were there so many of them, their leaves were colored oranges, reds, and yellows; as if it was fall and not spring. Above the trees was a bright blue sky, peppered with fluffy white clouds. The leaves swayed a bit in the gentle breeze, and a few birds lifted from their perches. He looked down and could see a couple of elk like creatures walking towards him. They were looking up at him as if fascinated, as if they had never seen a human before.

"Wow", was all he could say. He didn't know what to say, all he could do was… feel.

"It's always like this here," the princess told him. "Mom, Dad, and I would come here sometimes to have a picnic. We would sit here for hours enjoying the sky, petting the elk, and just enjoying ourselves. No responsibilities, no kingdom to run, just… us." She looked out into the forest, sadness in her eyes. Her parents had become so busy recently between trying to feed their growing kingdom and keeping peace with the other kingdoms, all the while having daily duties that they both had there had been little time for them to have a picnic.

Snapping out of her revere of the past she grabbed Marco's hand. "Come on.", she said and rushed down the cliff. As they raced to the bottom Star couldn't help but yell with glee. Marco laughed and joined her in the fun. When they had reached the bottom both were somewhat sweaty and were breathing heavily.

"That was fun, Star. What now?"

"Glad you asked becAuse" she paused and casted a quick spell. When the pink cloud of glitter had disappeared a large wicker basket was left on the ground with a folded blanket set neatly on top. They rolled out the blanket, and quickly took out the food in the basket. Having laid everything out Marco took inventory. He saw that Star had made some of his favorite mexican dishes such as Elote, Enchiladas, and his favorite Carnitas Enchilada soup. He saw that she had also laid out some of her favorite Earth foods, such as pizza, tacos, and potatoes. There was also a pile of Mewman corn, which Marco knew was the best corn in all of the universe.

"You made all this?" Marco asked, he quickly took a spoonful of carnitas and tasted it. It was just like his mother's. "Oh my God Star this is amazing! How did you do all of this?"

Star blushed, "Well I had some help from your mom. But we've both had a stressful week, what with Ludo coming back with a wand, and the recent monster attacks. Plus we haven't been able to hang out as much because of school. So I thought that it would be nice to have a nice picnic." she finished gesturing to the food around them. arco had been busy for the last month trying to get all the homework they had. Plus he took time to help Star with her homework; so she thought that he might need a little break. Something that would help him relax. She knew that it had been a right choice to bring him to the forest; few knew about it's existence. He looked so amazed when he had seen the trees, and just know tasting the food that she helped make and seeing his face light up; Star knew that she had made the right choice in bringing him here.

"I love it Star", Marco said smiling. He leaned over towards her, and at first she thought that he was going to do something, but then he just wrapped his arms around her. Slightly disappointed but happy at the contact of her friend, she hugged him back. After what some might consider more than a friendly hug, they pulled apart and started eating.

After gorging themselves, Star pointed her wand at the leftovers, with a pink blast the scraps disappeared; along with the wicker basket. All that was left was the cloth that they were laying on.

Star and Marco lay side by side on their backs. The sun was warm against their faces and the soft breeze lulled them to sleep.

Marco woke up, sensing something. He didn't know what had woke him but it seemed foreign, as if it wasn't a part of the forest. But he was distracted by movement. This one immediately in front of him. He looked down to see Star resting against him. Somehow, while they were asleep, his arm had gotten under her head, and she had wrapped her arm around his waist. He also felt that she had one leg over his, and he had one over her; as if they were battling in their sleep for dominance. As close as she was to him, Marco noticed every detail on her face. Her skin was soft and smooth. There were no blemishes, freckles, moles or anything on her perfect face. Her cheeks were stamped by Star's hearts. He had always been curious as to why she had them, but had never thought to ask her. He knew they glowed when she was channeling powerful magic, as she had done when she rescued him from Toffee. But his gaze drifted from her cheeks to her lips. He soft, pink lips here slightly apart; allowing Star to breathe. But they were also slightly curved upward around the edges, as if she was having a good dream. And as if she sensed him looking at her she spoke. It was a soft and quiet whisper, so soft that had he not been so close to her he would never had heard it. But soft as it was, it carried tremendous weight.

"M-Marco," That one word, that one single word captured all of his attention. She was dreaming of him, he thought stunned. And it looked like it was a good dream. Again as if she sensed his thoughts Star shifted a little, moving closer to Marco. They were so close that Marco could feel her breath. As it was he could feel how warm she was through their clothes. He felt a beat near his chest. He knew that it wasn't his because his was currently in his throat. He looked at Star again, her face a mere inches away from his. He was moving closer now, he didn't exactly know why but he knew that it felt right. He was so close to her now, breathing in the air that she gave out. She smelled like a mix of candy and fresh air. The smell drew him closer to her still, until their lips were barely brushing each other.

*CRASH*

The sound was enough to startle them both. Star jumped up nearly smacking Marco in the head and quickly looked around.

"What was that?" She asked.

Marco unable to control his heartbeat, and out of breath replied,"I don't know but it came from over there." he pointed to his left. They leaped up ready for action. What they saw was a large white cloud coming from the ground, and rising to the air. They both knew that this wasn't natural; something was messing with the forest.

"Come one," Marco said, this time being the one that grabbed Stars hand; and dragging her towards the smoke.

"How long were we asleep for?" Star asked. Marco looked up at the orange sky seeing that the sun was just beginning to set.

"I would say a few hours at least."

"What's causing the smoke?"

"My best guess, is there is a fire of some sort."

"That's silly, there wouldn't be a fire here. It never storms and there are no leaves on the ground. The only thing that could cause a fire is…"

They stopped, dead in their tracks. In front of them they saw what had caused the forest fire.

"Monsters" they said in unison. There were dozens of them from what Marco could see. They were all gathered in a clearing. Marco looked at the ground and saw that the ground was fillede with tree stumps and scorch marks. There were a number of dragon's; which would have been the cause of the fire and marks, two of them were locked in cages, while one was being poked by spears onto the edge of the clearing. The monsters with the spears were widely shaped humanoids. Their torso extending further than that of a normal human, but that was in order to hold the two heads on its shoulders. They shouted something at the dragon and gave it a sharp prod, causing the dragon to let loose a stream of fire. Marco looked past them, all he saw was smoldering ruins of a once beautiful forest.

"Why are they cutting dow…"

Star gasped. "How dare they!" her voice started to get dangerously low. "How dare they destroy my forest!" Star started marching towards the monsters, her wand started glowing. Instead of its usual pink, it was glowing green. Marco didn't have time to worry about that right now, because Star was heading right into a death trap. What she hadn't seen was the two large minotaur like creatures, wielding battle axes, on the other side of the clearing. And in front of them was a chain of monsters, all wielding axes and chopping down the trees. Marco noticed that these monsters were attached with chains between their legs and their arms, which made it hard for them to chop down the trees.

"That's weird. I don't remember monsters having slaves. Especially other monsters" He pushed that thought away, right now he had to get Star. She was at the edge of the clearing before she stopped. Marco caught up to her out of breath.

"Are you crazy?" he huffed,"Star, there are way too many monsters out there for us to fight."

She scanned the burnt clearing taking inventory of all the monsters around her. She noticed the two Minotaurs to her right watching over a chain of monsters. To her left were a couple of other monsters poking a dragon, making it burn the nearby trees.

Marco looked at Star and saw the determination and bloodlust in her eyes. He didn't like that look, he knew that she wanted a fight. He noticed something else, her wand was pulsing now, pulsing an acid green color. They had to get out of here before they were noticed.

"Star I think we should leave." Star looked at him, anger flashing in her eyes.

"Listen. These monsters are destroying this forest. We have to stop them before they destroy the whole place." Marco knew she was right, they couldn't just let the monsters destroy the forest. But at the same time he didn't want her to get hurt, and there was a lot of monsters out there. He looked at Star again and she looked right back at him.

"I'm not talking you out of this am I?" she shook her head. Then looked at the monsters and tightened her grip on her wand. Marco sighed and tensed up, preparing himself for a fight.

Garnax looked around the clearing. The six foot monster walked around making sure that everything was in order. As he passed the prisoners, cutting down the trees, he stroked one of the horns that curled down to his mouth, much like that of a rams. As muscular as he was the ram monster only carried a whip, which he used against one of the axemen that had started to slack off.

He gave a guttural growl to the creature, and the smaller monster immediately resumed working on the tree. They did not have any time to waste; the master wanted this forest cleared out as fast as possible. Not only did they need the wood, but they also needed the space. For what, the monster didn't care as long as he got paid.

He looked into the forest that had yet to be cleared out; he thought he heard rustling but decided that it must have been a forest creature. He turned his attention to the dragon. The beast was being goaded into burning the forest floor, thus making it easier for the monsters hoofs, claws, and assortment of feet to walk across.

He heard the rustling again. This time he decided to check out the source of the noise. He walked up to the bushes and started rooting around in them. Suddenly his hand caught something, it was soft and smooth. He pulled up to see that he was holding a hand, which was holding a wand. Suddenly his vision filled with green, and then black.

The other monsters noticed their overseer fall, and suddenly there was chaos. From behind the trees there were three blasts of green light, each blast hit a different monster, first the two minotaurs and then one of the double headed monsters. The other double headed monster managed to dodge a fourth blast from Stars wand. He blocked the next blast with his staff, and saw his friends getting up. They weren't injured badly, they were just stunned. Suddenly a boy appeared from the trees. The monster still standing saw a flash of red from his right head before that side when dark. Then he felt a pain in his stomach, doubling over and dropping his spear he realized that he had been kicked.

Star appeared from the trees. Seeing that her spells had only knocked down the monsters she decided to hurry. She walked over to where the chained monsters were, and with a quick blast freed them. Without saying thanks they ran into the smoldering field. Star turned her attention back to the other monsters. The minotaurs had gotten up and the overseer was beginning to stir. She looked over to see Marco karate chopping a double headed monster, its twin laying on the ground behind Marco. She turned her attention to the minotaurs.

"Narwhal blast!" she cried sending a grey narwhal flying at the minotaur on the left. Again this didn't do much but stagger him. She fired another Narwhal blast at the second minotaur, but he was prepared for it. He caught the Narwhal by the midsection and flung it over its shoulder. He advanced on Star drawing his double sided axe out. She took a step back, and then backflipped as the monster swung at her. She kept firing different spells at the monster, "Narwhal blast, Rainbow blast, shooting Star explosion." No matter what spell she used it only stopped the monster, and while he did seem a little more scratched up it was clear that her spells were too weak to go against him.

"Shit, time to pull out the big guns. Shimmering Destructo Canon!" she shouted. Her want transformed into a triangular bazooka. She pointed at the monster, which continued advancing on her not afraid of her spells. Star pulled the trigger and shot three powerful heart shaped shells at the monster. The monster disappeared in a mushroom cloud of pink. When the smoke had cleared she saw that the monster was on his back, unconscious.

"Yes! Oh crap!" She ran after seeing the second minotaur rushing her. The beast was forgoing his axe in favor of his horns. She dodged to the right at the last second, causing the monster to slam into a nearby tree. This gave Star a moment to see Marco taking on the ram beast with the whip.

"How are you doing?' she called.

"Just, ugh, fine" he replied taking a hit. Star winced seeing that the whip had caused a gash across his arm. She was worried but knew that Marco could take care of himself. She returned her attention to her opponent. The minotaur had recovered from the shock and was preparing to charge her again. This time she stood her ground. The minotaur raced towards her, and just like before Star dodged to one side. But having this trick used on him once before the minotaur had stuck both of his hands out. With an oof, Star was thrown to the ground. She was lying on her back having a really hard time recovering her breath.

Suddenly there was a hand around her throat. She was dragged up and slammed against a tree by the beast. The impact caused her to gasp in pain. There was a bit of blood trickling out from the corner of her mouth, she had bitten her tongue.

Marco took a flying kick at the monster before him. The beast used his horns to block Marco's kick, but thanks to Marco's training he kicked off from the horns, and back flipped himself away from the beast. While karate was his primary style of fighting, over the last year he had also taken up Krav Maga and gymnastics. He figured as much as he and Star got into trouble a little extra training wouldn't hurt. And it certainly didn't; not only did he learn many useful skills from his classes, but he had also gotten stronger and had bulked up. This was the only reason he was able to hold his own against the ram like monster. He ducked as the monster swung its whip at him. The whip was a problem at medium range, Marco had to get in close in order to have a chance of beating the monster.

Marco ran towards the monster as fast as he could. The monster sensing his intentions started to back away, but was caught by a running punch from Marco. Despite his size the monster staggered back a bit, surprised by the boy's strength. The monster smiled, and dropped his whip. Marco was surprised to see the beast give up his weapon, but widened his stance. Among the Karate, and Krav Maga Marco had also learned a bit of boxing; not a lot but enough to know how to ready himself.

The monster took the first swing, a left hook. Marco ducked easily under it, took a step forward, and drove his fist into the monster's gut. The monster backed up again but quickly regained his balance; then he started moving to the right. Marco being right handed wouldn't be able to get a good shot at the monster. So Marco started moving to his left in order to cut the beast off. The beast stopped and stared at the boy, recognizing an experienced fighter. He gave the boy a nod of understanding and respect and then charged. Marco was on guard however. Each of the monster's blows landed on his arms, which were protecting his face. Each punch hit Marco like a brick wall, but he knew that he had to hold out. As strong as the punces were one good one right to his face would mean the end of the fight. Nonetheless he had to do something, he couldn't wait for the monster to tire itself out. Thinking quickly he shoved his arms outwards, forcing the monster to halt its assualt for a split second.

That second gave Marco enough time to do a backflip kick. He launched himself of the ground, arching his back and extending his right foot. The foot caught the monster in the chest and Marco thought he heard something crack. He landed the flip at a crouch and used this to spring forward. He gave the monster no time to recover as Marco flung a flurry of punches, each one caught the monster in the solar plexus preventing the beast from regaining his breath. He landed an uppercut directly to the beast's face causing the monster's nose to break and gush blood. The fight went on each trading blows until finally the beast went down. Marco was bleeding from his nose, a cut on his lip and above his eye. It felt like he had a couple of broken ribs and his left leg hurt so much it was hard to stand on it. He wiped the blood out of his eye and looked towards Star. He was just in time to see the minotaur charge her with his arms out. He watched in horror as his friend went down. He started to move as the monster slammed her against the tree causing her to spit blood.

Hurting from his leg and ribs Marco staggered towards the pair. He broke into a sprint as he saw the monster raise its arm, getting ready for a punch. Before he could get to them Marco saw the monster jerk and Stars head snap to the left, staring directly at Marco. It felt like he himself had taken the hit as he saw the princesses dead expression. He tackled the monster and spinning about flung the creature as far from Star as he could manage.

He jumped to where the princess was lying on the ground motionless. Oh God she wasn't moving, she wasn't breathing! He put two fingers to her neck and felt, no pulse. He then put his head next to her mouth hoping to hear something. But, silence. Immediately he went into shock; he didn't know what to do his best friend in the entire universe wasn't moving or breathing. His mind was blank and he couldn't do anything about it. She was, dead. Suddenly he started sobbing. His tears ran down his face, stinging his cut lips and mixing with his blood.

"St-Star?," he sobbed. He had lost her. The one person whom he cared about the most was gone. Marco didn't know what to do, half of him had hoped that she was unconscious and that he had been wrong. Part of him hoped that she would wake up and ask why he was crying.

He looked at the girl again, her hair splayed out around her head like a halo. "Star, wake up. Please, Star wake up!" he just couldn't accept the fact of what was happening. His whole world was crumbling apart. All he felt was pain welling up inside of him wanting to be released. He couldn't hold it back, "STAR!" he lifted his head and cried, letting all of his pain, despair, and sadness to be released into that one name. A name that would never be called upon again.

 ***sobbing* what? I'm not crying. Just because i wrote it doesn't mean that i don't feel it.**

 **That is the trick to good writing, i think i wouldn't know for sure, feel every emotion that you put into your stories. If you feel what the character feels, then the reader will feel it too.**

 **Look at me, i get a couple of followers and a couple of good reviews and all the sudden I act like i know what i'm talking about. Somebody stop me XD**

 **Again sorry for the late update, like I said I was up until 4am writing this.**

 **I hope you guys like it. I think i might take a break let all this settle in, XD. Don't worry i won't do that.**

 **Thanks again for the reviews Infamous AA thanks so much for the support on that last chapter.**

 **Alright thanks again for the support if you like the story feel free to follow it ;). Also follow me on Twitter KioBowden if you IM me i will respond, and as always any suggestions you have for the story feel free to share. Alright see yall in the next chapter.**

 **POST FUCKING SCRIPT**

 **Ok real quick, sorry about this. I just checked my Twitter where someone had shown a message that Adam, the voice of Marco, sent over snapchat saying that Star and Marco were going to ask people to silence their phones during a movie. I asked, half joking, if we were going to get a movie and Adam said ask me in a few months. I know that that is not a lot to go on, it could be Adam trolling us, but omg please let us have a movie please. Ok thats it for now, end post script.**


	5. Chapter 4 Pt 2

**Calm down calm down, the update is here. I cannot tell you guys how happy I was to get an email with someone asking for an update. I'm still so happy you guys like the story.**

 **Chapter is a bit shorter but it has some stuff going on, particularly with Marco. So since half of you are going to skip this part, i would too, without a further ado, Saudade Part 2.**

Chapter 4: Saudade Part 2

Marco's voice had given up on him. He didn't know how long he had been holding her body, staring at the sky. Hoping beyond hope that this was all a dream. That the person he cared most about wasn't gone. He looked at her again. Her eyes were closed, and her face showed her at peace. Looking at her brought on a fresh wave of tears, and her buried his face into her holding her closer. His voice returned to him but only one word escaped his lips,

"Star" it was broken and lifeless. That one word brought on so many emotions for Marco. Friendship, joy, a need to protect it, and most recently the feeling of something real but something that could have been much more, Love. He felt it in his chest, a feeling like no other. It filled him with an ache, a longing of something that he would never have.

That ache moved to his limbs until he was nothing but this ache. His body was consumed by it, it was all he felt. But he began to notice something. That ache felt as if it was coming out of him, as if it could no longer be contained. He opened his eyes and noticed a glow. He pulled back from Star and saw that it was him that was glowing. He continued to watch motionless as the glow moved up his body, traveling from his chest to his arms, and furthur into his hands. They stayed there before transferring to Star's shoulders. The glow began to travel to her chest, and it rested at her heart before spreading to the rest of her body. She now looked alive, her skin giving a soft glow. With a shock Marco realized that she was alive, her chest had begun to move agian. He could feel her breathing and with a jolt she sat up and opened her eyes. Those blue eyes had begun to look at her surroundings confused. All Marco could do was star in shock, holding onto her shoulders for dear life. He couldn't believe what had happened she was back.

Star looked at Marco now, "Marco? Wha- what happe…" Marco hugged her closely. Yet again a wave of tears had hit him, this time they were tears of joy. She was alive.

"Marco." Star said with a slight laugh. She hugged him back, "What's going on with you?" Marco pulled back looking into her face. She saw that his eyes were red and puffy and immediately got worried.

"You mean you don't remember?" Star cocked her head confused.

"What do you mean? What don't I remember?" Before Marco had a chance to explain a crossbow bolt appeared next to them. They both jumped and looked towards the direction the bolt came from. The owner of the bold was leading a band of monsters towards them, two more armed with crossbows and the rest armed with melee weapons. Marco was shocked to realize that these were the slaves that he and Star had saved.

Before he had anytime to think about that the other two monsters fired their crossbows. One bolt landed right in front of Marco, almost hitting him in the foot. The other he had no idea where it went. He grabbed Star by the arm, she gasped but he ignored it. The ran behind the tree line and continued running for a bit. After a while Marco stopped them and looked behind them. Based on the shaking of the trees the monsters were still chasing after them. They had about a minute or two before they caught up.

"Star," he said without looking at her, "get the scissors we need to leave" He turned to Star and saw that she was sitting on the ground. But there was another thing, she was bleeding from her shoulder. He could see a wooden shaft protruding from the wound. Star was holding her shoulder to prevent it from bleeding more than it already was. Without thinking Marco took off his hoodie and his shirt.

"Marco I, ahh, I need your, help." She breathed out. Marco knew what he had to do, after watching countless movies where they needed to stop someone from bleeding out he knew the basic idea of what they did. Star seemed to know more than him about the subject.

"Marco, I need you to pull out the bolt. Break off the other end and then pull it out." She leaned forward to show him the tip of the bolt sticking out of her back. He stood up and pulled off his belt. Wrapping it up twice he stuck it between her teeth.

"It's gonna be ok Star, I'm not going to let anything happen to you." With the thought of what had happened moments ago, Marco was determined not to let the same thing happen twice. He could not bear to lose Star a second time. So he set to work. Without any warning he snaped the tip off the bolt, causing Star to wince. With a quick apology he grasped the shaft.

"Ok i'm going to count to three, and then i'm going to pull it out okay?" She nodded and Marco began counting. "One, Two." he pulled out the bolt. Star groaned in pain and spat out the belt.

"Hey you didn't say three." she smiled, and Marco smiled back knowing that she was going to be okay. He tore the shirt in his hands and started wrapping it around her shoulder, making sure most of the padding was on the two openings. It would stop the bleeding for now but Star needed a doctor.

"Star we need to get you to a hospital. Do you have the dimensional scissors?" She nodded and pulled them out.

"Yeah I have them, but the thing is."

"What?" Marco asked. He knew this wasn't going to be good.

"This forest has old magic in it. When my parents and I would come here they told me how the forests magic prevented portals from being stable enough for a person to walk through. Except in the cave where we came from." Marco frowned. That cave was at least a mile north of where they were at, they could make it there in a few minutes if they pushed themselves. But what worried him was could they make it there before the monsters catch up to them?

He got up and reached out his hand to Star, lifting her up with her right arm. "Come on, we have to get to that cave." As if on cue they began to hear the signs of the monsters catching up with them. Without another word they set off at a sprint, trying to put as much distance between them and the monsters. They ran for their lives up the hill. Before long, they saw the cave ahead of them. But the monsters were gaining on them' Marco could hear them thundering through the forest roaring and cracking trees in half.

The pair stopped at the foot of the hill. They were going to have a hard time running up that steep of a slope. There were a couple of places where they could hold onto, but Marco knew that Star's shoulder wouldn't be able to handle much.

"Come on, we are nearly there." Marco huffed. Him and Star started crawling up the hill. The sheer steepness caused Marco's already aching legs to burn. That and his chest was on fire, breathing seemed to only make it worse. Star was much the same, but she was in slightly better condition due to her superhuman strength.

They got halfway up the hill before they heard a crash behind them. They turned and saw that a couple of the monsters had broken through the trees. It was only a second before they looked and spotted the pair. With a roar they charged up the slope. A couple of the monsters made easy work of the hill, most of them having claws that could grab onto the side and others having hoofs. A couple of the beasts even had wings, which they unfurled and used to get to them. T

This time it was Star who recovered first and lead Marco up the hill. They were about three fourths of the way up before the first flying monster reached them. Turning quickly Star shot a magical blast at it and it tumbled to the ground and down the mountain. Marco looked back and saw that two other flying monsters were close behind it, and a third monster on the ground was within arms distance from them.

"Star!" Marco called. Without a word the princess shot two other blasts at the monsters in the air. Marco kicked at the one on the ground. The monster only flinched a bit before grabbing his leg, dragging Marco down. Star looked at him and shot a blast past Marco, knocking the monster off the hill. Many more monsters were coming up the hill, they needed to hurry. With a new burst of energy they climbed. They reached the entrance to the cave, and turned around quickly before going in. The monsters were on them. Marco kicked a few of them down the hill while Star took out a few that were in the air. But they were overwhelmed. One bull monster punched Marco in the gut, knocking the breath out of him. The monster then shoved him into the cave, it was dark and Marco could barely see. But he felt something thud next to him, he looked over to see Star lying on her stomach, blood oozing from the wound on her shoulder and from a cut on her lip.

"I'm ok," She said. They got up and ran further into the cave hoping that they could open a portal before the monsters got them. They had no such luck. Before they could move too far down the cave a ball smacked them in the back. It turned out that the ball was another monster, grabbed and thrown by a bigger monster.

Marco felt a large hand grab him by the back of his neck. He was lifted up and thrown into a wall. He fell to the floor and coughed. Blood dribbled from his chin, and before he could wipe it off he was against the wall. He looked at the hand that was holding him up and traced it back down the arm to the owner. It was Granax. The ram monster no longer had his whip, instead he had a spiked mace on his back. He growled at Marco, but Marco looked past the beast to see Star in the same situation. Once again a minotaur held Star up against the wall and was drawing a massive fist back, preparing to strike.

Marco's mind flashed back to this exact same moment before. A minotaur had Star against a tree, he pulled back and snapped her neck letting her lifeless body drop. Marco felt a familiar ache in his stomach, it felt warm and was quickly spreading to his limbs. The monster noticed something was wrong, something in the look of the boy's eyes tipped him off. Suddenly Marco raised his arms and grabbed the monster's arm. Staring directly at the monster Marco felt power surge to his arms.

The monster gasped, what he saw terrified him for he had never seen anything like this. The boy's eyes had gone electric blue, crackling with immense power. Not only that but so did his arms. Blue tendrils of blue light started apearing on Marco's arms, glowing like neon. Marco felt the power go through his hands and into the monster. Feeling as if his arms were on fire from the inside he tried to let go but found he was unable to. The boy's grip had tightened on the monster preventing escape.

The skin on the monster's arm started bubbling and glowing. Soon the arm burst and Marco was freed from the wall. Landing neatly on his feet he turned to where Star was. The minotaur holding her had heard the screams of his commander and had turned to look, fist still poised.

Without thinking Marco raised his right arm, which was still covered in blue lines, and pointed it at the minotaur. The monster dropped the girl and faced his opponent. No matter how strong the boy was he was still just a child, and therefore no match for the minotaur. How wrong he was. This time electricity sprung from the boy's hand, shooting towards the minotaur at lightning speed. Without time to react the monster was trapped as the tendrils wrapped around his wrists, ankles, and neck thereby holding him in place. Marco's arm glowed momentarily and then a blast of blue light was shot towards the beast. Once the blinding light from the blast had gone it revealed a gaping hole in the beast's chest, right where the heart was.

Star could do nothing as she watched the scene play out, her gaze was fixated on the minotaur that had been holding her a moment ago. She shifted her gazed back to Marco as he turned towards the cave entrance where more monsters were spilling in. Marco raised both of his arms this time. The blue lines were still there but dim. Star felt a crackle in the air that the hairs on her arms stand up. Marco's arms glowed and started pulsing. The monsters stopped sensing danger, but after a brief moment they continued their charge.

Marco brought his arms together, cupping his hands around a small ball of light. He crouched moving his hands to his hips keeping them together. The monster's were closer now, almost on him. Marco looked behind him at Star, who was still on the ground. She gasped when she saw him, his eyes ablaze and his hair floating above his head. The ground around them had started to shake and crack. Some of the smaller rocks on the ground started to hover above the ground, and electricity was crackling around Marco. He smiled at her, and then turned back towards the monsters. He felt a surge of energy emanating from his core travel to his arms. He felt it, the power inside of him which had been awakened. He channeled that immense power to the light in his hands, and he felt it. It was time, for what he didn't know but his body took over. He looked at the lead monster, in all four of his eyes. As he looked into the monster's eyes he saw its expression change from rage to fear. The monster skidded to a halt knowing somehow that he must flee. But it was too late. Marco again adjusted his stance and brought his arms forward. With a powerful thrust sending his arms forward facing the beasts. The ball of light in his hands exploded, and a beam of blue was sent towards the monsters. With a yell Marco drove everything he had into the blast; it caught the lead monster in the chest instantly obliterating it. It arched to the right and caught the monster nearest to the first in the chest as well. The beam moved to the closest monster and one after another deleted them from this world.

In an instant the beam of power and light was gone, leaving Star and Marco temporarily blind. The lines on Marco's arms were dimming, as if their power was gone. Marco turned to Star, took one step and passed out. Star rushed forward to catch him, and as his weight settled in her arms she looked at him. His eyes, much like his arms, were dimming returning back to their chocolate brown color. Star was so shocked that she couldn't say anything. Marco smiled a bit and said one word, so much power and meaning was put behind that word as he spoke it. Star's eyes widened as he said her name. He said her name often, mostly in exasperation and warning when she was doing something bad, but this time it felt different. Despite their current surroundings, and the events that had just transpired ti made her feel alone with him. As if the whole universe had fallen away to leave them two. Star looked at the boy's face, a face she had come to memorize, but this time she saw something else. It wasn't as if his face had changed, it just felt like she was seeing a new him. Without thinking she leaned down to him staring at his eyes which had opened. She closed her eyes and slowly leaned in, she felt him move up to her, they were so close now.

 _Thud_

Star jumped, and turned her head to look at the source of the noise. A medium sized monster had appeared at the cave's entrance. Star felt an ominous power radiating from him, and noticed how familiar it looked, though she knew that she could never have seen it before. Quickly she fished her dimensional scissors out of her star shaped bag. She then ripped a hole in space, a black swirling vortex that lead home. She readjusted her grip on Marco and with one last look at the creature still standing at the cave's entrance she jumped through the portal and closed it behind her.

 **Not expectin that were ya? Sorry im watching Brave for like the 8th time and said that in a Scottish accent, if you could hear it. For those who are like me and skipped the bold text, thanks for requesting that I update. When I got that email I was so happy and im so glad that you guys enjoy my writing.**

 **As always feel free to leave a comment, isn't letting me view more than the first three for some reason but that's why i have it set to send me an email. So I also hoped that you enjoyed the little bit of Starco in there, there is certainly more to come. ;).**

 **Quick shout out to: Bigmike33321 and to Arctic-Era thanks for the follows and for the reviews they made me laugh. Sorry im slowly becoming Joss Whedon, half of you wont get that reference, it makes me sad. Anyways**

 **Thanks for reading guys I will see you in the next chapter.**


	6. Chapter 5

**So anybody looking forward for February 16th? I certainly am. So I have a bit of news for you guys at the end of this chapter so make sure to read it. Thanks again for the feedback, every bit of it helps.**

 **Without delay enjoy.**

Chapter: 5 - Recovery

Angie Diaz was sitting in her kitchen, at her house, reading the news. There was nothing too interesting that had happened, the closest thing to an actual story was Miss Fritz's bakery catching fire. The article said that the wall behind the oven needed to be replaced and that the bakery was going to be up and running again soon. She heard what sounded like a small bring along with fabric being ripped. Angie knew the sound for when Star and Marco went on adventures. They must have been coming back from one just now.

She had made the kids small sandwiches for when they got back just incase they were hungry. She grabbed the plate out of the fridge and walked into the living room.

"Kids I made you some sna…" the plate fell to the floor shattering to pieces. Angie stared in horror at the pair on her floor. Star had her head on Marco's chest, Angie could see that she was shaking. Marco had his eyes closed but he also had blood on his face and burn marks on his arms. His clothes were tattered and his favorite hoodie was missing. Star looked up at Angie eyes red and puffy from crying.

"Please help." she cried before looking back at Marco, taking her left hand and stroking his face with it. "Please wake up. WAKE UP!" she kept begging hoping that Marco would wake up.

Angie sprung to life stepping over the shards of the plate she ran to the phone. "Raphael!", she shouted before picking it up and dialing 911. After demanding that an ambulance rush to the scene she hung up, turning to see her husband running down the stairs.

Sensing that something was wrong, Raphael looked at Angie, "Honey what is the mat-ter", he tapered off as he spotted Star and Marco. All he could see was Star's back, shaking her head still lowered. "Miho", Raphael's voice broke as he saw his son lying eyes closed. He put made the connection, Angie's call, Star crying, he knew that something terrible had happened. Angie had fallen by now, sitting with Marco's head in her lap. Star had gotten up, and not knowing what to do ran to Raphael wrapping her arms around him, as much as she could since he was so big, and cried. He hugged Star back and stared at his son's body.

"Angela. Is he…" he couldn't bring himself to finish the question fearing the answer. Thankfully Angie shook her head no. At least they knew Marco had a chance. Before too long the ambulance arrived. Marco was put on a gurney and they rushed to the hospital. Unable to fit all three of them Mrs. Diaz rode in the ambulance while Mr. Diaz drove Star. He tailgated the truck and they arrived at the emergency room, where Marco was wheeled to a wing marked surgery where the rest had to stay behind.

Things calmed down after that, Raphael was pacing the waiting room, occasionally glancing at the doors that Marco had gone through. Star just stood in place, her empty gaze was pointed towards the receptionist's desk. Angie put her hand on Star's shoulder startling the girl out of her daze.

"Star honey, you're bleeding. And you look pale." Star had forgotten that she had been shot with a crossbow. Now that Mrs. Diaz had mentioned it, Star felt woozy. All of the sudden the room swayed and the ground rose up to meet her. Star faintly heard the shouts of a woman, maybe it was Mrs. Diaz? Star didn't know, she was so tired. Maybe if she closed her eyes she would feel better, and maybe Marco would be okay.

"His condition is stable, but the boy suffered some serious lacerations, puncture wounds, and not to mention his whole body seems to have been burnt."

"Oh my" Angie Diaz gasped in horror. "What could have caused all of this?"

"Well that's what we were hoping you could tell us." The doctor replied,"In all my years I have never seen anything like the burns the boy sustained."

Raphael understood what the doctor was getting at and went on the defensive, "Are you implying that we did this to Marco? WE DID nothing of the sort."

"Raphael calm down, he was just asking if we know what caused it"

The nervous doctor shook his head and raised his hands in surrender. "I'm sorry sir. I never meant to imply that you were the cause of the injuries; I was just hoping that you knew what caused them. Like I said, the cuts and puncture marks are very abnormal. The cuts resemble claw marks, more than a knife wound; as if he was attacked by an animal. The puncture marks also resemble bite marks, but a couple are deeper and wider than a bite mark. What worries me is the burn marks. They are like nothing that I have ever seen. First off they are perfectly symmetrical."

"What do you mean?" Angie asked?

"Well, there are thin burns all along his arms in a sort of pattern." He pulled out a camera and showed the screen to the Diazs. On the photo it showed Marco's bare arms, covered by blackened strips of flesh. Mrs. Diaz gasped softly, and tears started welling up in her eyes again.

The doctor continued, "you see the burn marks are in a crisscrossing pattern up and down his arm, and then they stop at his wrist in a perfect line." He hit the next button showing a picture of his bare back. "What is also curious is that the lines go from his arms up to his shoulders and meet in the center of his back. Similar burns are on his legs leading up to the ankles and stopping there." The picture showed what the doctor just described. The marks that went up Marco's arms went behind his shoulders and stopped at the center of his back. The same was for the lines on his legs, they swirled up his legs, curving towards the sides of his hips and then up the small of his back to another mark.

"Doctor, what is this?" Raphael asked pointing to a spot on the picture. Angie had noticed it too but was shocked at how many burn marks there were. She couldn't believe that something like this could happen to her baby.

"That we have no idea. It seems like the rest of the burns, it's consistent in the scarring. But we don't know why it looks like that."

The doctor and the Diazs looked once more at the picture. This one showed only the boy's back much like the other ones they could see the lines that ran to the legs and the arms. Only this time they could see what the lines were connected to, a large circle. Inside the circle was a sun shaped outline, with little triangles pointed outwards. There was another circle inside the sun outline, this one had small lines. The entire thing looked much like a mexican sun emblem, at least the style of it was.

The trio contemplated the scar for a bit more before Angie broke their concentration. "Can we go in and see him?"

"He is asleep right now but you can visit him when he wakes up. I'm going to check up on him now will you wait here or will you be returning home."

What a stupid question Angie thought, "We will be waiting here." She walked over to the seating area and sat down, sealing her decision.

Raphael looked at his wife, seeing the bags under her eyes. They had been waiting for hours before Doctor Neil had come out. Raphael asked about Stars condition. All the doctor had to say was that she sustained similar injuries, minus the burns, but she would recover just fine. Raphael thanked the doctor and asked that they be updated regularly. Then he joined his wife in the sitting area.

She rester her head on his shoulder, and he leaned his head on her's; grabbing her hand and holding it between both of his. "They are going to be okay, Angie."

"I know. I just wish I knew what happened to them." Raphael nodded, 'what happened?' that had been the question gnawing at them since the beginning. Eventually Raphael, exhausted from the day's events, fell asleep. Angie, however stayed awake too worried to sleep.

Marco's eyes shot open, and he jumped up out of bed. He didn't remember doing so but he was standing, his legs were all wobbly. He tried to look around to get a feel for where he was but it was dark so it was really hard to see his surroundings. He realized that his feet were bare, he could feel cold stone beneath him. In the distance he could see a light. With no other option he walked towards it, making sure to take small steps so he didn't fall.

He reached the entrance of the cave and saw a beautiful fall forest in front of him. He took a deep breath and smelled the fresh air that was being blown by a gentle breeze. He looked down and saw a flash of pink. He ran down the hill following the odd color. As he ran he noticed that there were scorch marks on the ground, resembling those of a powerful blast. He also noticed that there were chunks of the hill missing. He had to jump over a few of these holes but otherwise ignored them.

He reached the bottom of the hill and ran in the direction of where the pink went. He walked through the forest avoiding branches, until he came upon a clearing. In the clearing sat a figure with her back to him. She was dressed in a pink dress her right shoulder exposed and her blonde hair put up in a neat bun. She must of heard him approach for she stood up and faced him. It was Star except something was different.

"Hello Marco", she said formally, "Don't you clean up nice." she motioned towards him. Marco looked down to see that he was wearing a business suit with a tie and everything. He looked up at Star.

"What are we doing here?"

"Oh 'we' as you say, are here to make a choice."

"Choice? What kind of choice do I have to make?"

"Well to put it simply, one that will decide the fate of the universe. You see you are special Marco, you are connected to a very old and very dangerous prophecy."

"Prophecy? But I don't believe in prophecies." Star chuckled in a very un-Star like manner and started circling him. She had pulled her wand out showing the broken half of the star shaped gem inside. It pulsed green for a moment.

"Just because you don't believe in prophecies does not mean that they aren't true. Higher powers have set events in motion. Whether you like it or not, Marco you are the key."

Marco closed his eyes in frustration, none of this made any sense. He opened them ready to question Star further but Star had disappeared; along with the forest. He was at Saint Olga's. He recognized the room he was in, it was a circular room that had a ton of corridors, leading to where he did not know. On the ceiling was a mural of monsters coming towards him, almost as if they knew he was there. Beneath him the floor was carved with three symbols. The one Marco was standing on was a circular symbol with a sun inside of it. Across from him was another circular symbol this one with a star inside. Almost enveloping the two was a crescent shaped moon. He looked and saw Star standing by the Star symbol.

"Star what is going on. Please tell me what's happening." He took a step forward and then jumped back as a blast nearly missed his foot. He looked down and then back up, seeing Star pointing his wand at him.

"Star?" he took a step back raising his hands in surrender, "Star what are you doing?" Without responding she fired another blast at him, this one caught him in the shoulder and knocked him to the ground. It hurt but not too much, as if she was holding back her power. Marco looked up at Star who had advanced towards him. She had her wand pointed at him, he looked at her face and saw that she was crying. "I didn't want to do this, but I have no choice."

"Star what are you talking about? What are you doing? Star!" Marco saw a flash and flinched. Marco opened his eyes and saw that Star was no longer standing above him. Instead she was laying beside him, but something was different. He looked at her eyes and saw that they were empty, Marco immediately knew that she was dead. He heard shuffling to his left and looked at the source of the sound. He saw a figure wearing a dark, hooded cloak with is left arm extended towards Star. Before anything else could happen, the room was filled with a blood red light.

Marco looked up and saw a blood red crescent moon hanging in the sky. He looked down at himself and saw that he was wearing a mexican tuxedo, the same one he had worn to the blood moon ball. He touched his right hip and found the same mask he wore to the dance there. He looked at it. It was an old mask that he wore for halloween once, but had painted it so it could be used for parties. He noticed that there was a small sun at the top, right where the forehead was.

He put the mask down and saw the cloaked figure standing a distance away from him. They were in a field, what type of field Marco couldn't tell.

"Who are you?" he asked. The figure remained silent. And right before Marco could ask again the figure turned. Under his hood, instead of a face he wore a painted mask with a sun on the forehead.

"Soon" the figure said, "you must choose your path. Soon you will change the universe."

"What do you mean?" the wind was picking up causing Marco to shout. It wouldn't stop, it just got worse and worse. Before too long Marco couldn't see the figure, he could barely keep his eyes open. But he kept hearing one word.

 _Soon_

 _Soon_

 _Soon_

Marco's vision went black. Then it went blindingly white.

He jumped awake panting. He felt his heart, feeling its rapid beat almost as if it was about to burst from his chest. He looked around to see that he was in a hospital, there was a monitor to his right that showed his vitals. On his left there was an IV bag, with tubes connecting to his arm. Marco took a double take and looked at his arm. They had the same markings as the figure who had shot Star.

His mind shot back to his dream, wondering what Star had meant when she said he was the key to some prophecy. Then he thought of Star. She had been hurt worse than he had. In fact he felt fine. He threw the blanket off of him and lifted his hospital gown. He took a quick look at himself before replacing the gown, nobody needed to know that he had nothing on underneath. But in that brief moment, he saw nothing. There were no claw or bite marks from the monster's attacks. His body was in perfect shape, except for the markings.

He thought about them and memory came rushing back to him. He remembered seeing Star about to get hit by a minotaur, for the second time, and felt something. Marco didn't know what it was, if it was anger, despair, or what but after seeing Star he knew he had to act. He remembered burning the monster's arms, the one who was holding him, and then he blasted the monster that had Star away. He had used magic, holy shit he had used magic. He didn't even have a wand, he was just a human, how could he have used magic? The rest came back to him, the blue marks on his arms, disintegrating the other monsters, Star. Star! He had to see her, he had to make sure that she was ok.

Without hesitating he swung his legs over the bed and tried to stand up, but the tubes in his arm held him back. With a grunt he ripped them out, wincing at the pain and blood that was coming from his arm. He looked at hir right arm and ripped the heart monitor tube from there. The machine had let out a few rapid beeps and then flatlined. Marco, finally able to stand, got up and took a step before lunging for the wall. His legs weren't working properly, but none of that mattered. He had to make sure Star was ok.

He lunged for the door and opened it, leaning on the door jam for support. He looked outside, there were a number of doctors walking in the hall looking down at their clipboards. There were a few doctors that were escorted by large men in white uniforms, they passed Marco without so much as glancing at him. There was one patient with a walker being helped to her room by a small nurse. Marco had no clue where Star was being held, so he picked a direction and started hobbling. He leaned heavily on the wall to make sure that he didn't fall. He looked at the rooms as he passed them searching for Star.

After passing many rooms filled with patients, most of which were sleeping he found her. Her door was open and she was lying propped up on the bed. Her eyes were closed, so Marco guessed that she was sleeping. He walked in and sat down by her bedside, back facing the door. She was in bad condition it looked like. He shoulder was wrapped up and her throat had a brace around it. She also had a few bandages wrapped around sections of her arms, and Marco could guess she had a few around her legs too.

He reached over and grabbed her hand, holding it in two of his. He was supposed to protect her, he was supposed to keep her safe not just because the king had asked him to years ago, but also because he wanted to. Marco knew that he wanted to keep her safe, but he had never realized how much she had meant to him until now. A tear fell onto her hand, surprised he touched his cheek to find it wet.

"Star. I'm so sorry." he saw her eyes flutter as if she had heard him. Her breathing increased until she was coughing violently. Marco held her down to prevent her from hurting herself more. When her fit was done she opened her eyes, they flicked to her room before resting on him.

"M-Marco?" she whispered, her voice was ragged and small, probably from being choked by monsters.

"Hey Star. Don't talk too much, it's okay we are in a hospital." she gave a knowing look, apparently they had hospitals in Mewni.

"How, are, you, doing?" she asked. Despite Marco's warning she continued to speak. Marco knew that this was her way of getting better; not letting what some monsters did get to her. Marco smiled, relieved at knowing that Star was going to be okay.

"Surprisingly good. I feel, normal almost." It was true, except for the marks on his arms, that closely resembled a tattoo, Marco felt normal. Star looked at him curiously and then caught sight of his tattoo. She traced a finger around the marks.

Suddenly they started glowing. Marco and Star jumped from surprise. It started at his shoulder and ran down his arm and stopped at his wrist. Marco felt his arm move of its own volition. It started floating towards Star, who had leaned away from it slightly afraid. His arm went to her forehead and grabbed her there. Marco felt a familiar ache spread from his midsection to his arm, and through his hand. There was a warm blue glow coming from his hand.

When the glow had subsided Marco lowered his hand and looked at it wondering what had just happened. Then he looked at Star she looked different than before; her skin was no longer pale, it was back to normal, and she didn't look tired anymore. She had noticed a difference too because she looked at her shoulder and started undoing the wrappings. When they were all off there was no wound, it was like she had never been shot. She kicked her blankets off and started undoing the wrappings around her stomach. Marco looked away to give her some privacy, but looked when she said he could. She had slightly unbuttoned her gown to show her stomach which was devoid of any injury. She buttoned the gown back up, and looked at him.

"How did you do that?" she removed her neck brace, which allowed her to speak more freely. "You healed me. And you can use magic!" She punched him in the arm.

"Ow what was that for?"

"Thats for not telling me that you could do magic. Like what the hell Marco, since when could you do that?"

"Just then. I didn't even know I could do magic, I thought it was impossible for earthlings to do magic much less without a wand."

"It was pretty sweet though, you were like booshh, whooosh, kabooom." she started doing arm movements to imitate him destroying all of the monsters. He laughed freely, he didn't know how much her being injured had stressed him out. Now that she was okay, he felt a massive boulder lift from his shoulders.

Star had stopped making exploding noises and looked up at him. Marco saw that there were tears welling up, so he sat down and grabbed her hand.

"Star what's wrong?" he looked into her eyes, concern and care showing.

"It's my fault that you got hurt. If we didn't have that picnic, then we would never have seen the monsters, and then i wouldn't have charged in, you wouldn't hav…" Marco silenced her by putting a finger to her lips. He moved that finger and used it to wipe away a tear that had fallen.

"Star this is not your fault. I had the greatest time of my life with you today. We found out that the monsters are burning down forests, for no reason. And if you hadn't attacked them then I would never know that I had magical powers. Star you don't have to apologize for anything." Marco cupped her cheek in his hand, and stared into her eyes willing her to know that he was being genuine. She leaned forward and wrapped her arms around his shoulders and hugged him tight. Marco hugged her back, despite all they had been through that day she still smelled like candy. He inhaled enjoying her scent.

Star was the first to pull back but she kept close, staring into his chocolate eyes. He stared back at those beautiful baby blues, everything fell away leaving only him and Star. They leaned closer to each other feeling each other's breath.

"Hey you're not supposed to be here." a shrill voice called out. Marco turned to see a short mousy looking nurse standing in the doorway with a clipboard. "Who are you and what are you…" She drifted off as she looked at Star seeing that her wounds were gone. "Where are your bandages? What what happened to your wounds?"

After they had explained what happened to her wounds the nurse got the doctor to check them out. He was just as surprised when they were as healthy as they could be. He said that it was a miracle that they could walk at all. After running a few tests to make sure they were fine, letting them change back into their clothes, he said that they could leave warning them to be careful and to call him if anything happened. They thanked him and then walked to the waiting room.

Angie and Raphael were all tears and joy when they saw Marco and Star. They took turns hugging the pair and crying over how blessed they were. The doctor explained as much as he could. About what was going on, but admitted that the only ones who could explain what happened were Marco and Star.

After making sure that they were okay to leave the family piled up in the mini van, and left for home. Halfway home, Marco felt something touch his hand. Looking down he saw Star's hand crawling reaching for his, without a word he grabbed it and they rode like that. Marco couldn't stop his mind from wandering back to the dream he had. Was he the cloaked figure that had killed Star, why was she attacking him in the first place? He knew he couldn't keep this secret, he had to talk to someone, he had to talk to Star about this. He tried to clear his mind and enjoy the fact that they were safe and unharmed. Marco wanted nothing more than for this day to end.

 **Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, I couldn't decide on how to write Marco's healing scene so I hope this is good enough.**

 **So updates, I am travelling tomorrow so I will not be posting an update, on top of that I will be starting school again so I might not have as much time to write. I will certainly do my best to update at least twice a week, but no more daily updates sorry.**

 **I really am going to try and update as much as I can but Im going to be really busy. As per usual please leave a comment, any suggestions you have for my story, or for my writing please feel free to message me.**

 **If you want to follow me on Twitter or Youtube just look up my name. Thanks so much guys i will see you in the next chapter.**


	7. Chapter 6

**Hellooooooo, sorry for the wait, I have been moving back into my dorm and trying to get my schedule fixed. Thanks so much for waiting and thank you for the reviews. I hope you all enjoy this chapter, I have a bit of Starco in and a little something else that might reveal where I am going with this story, or where I'm thinking of going to be more accurate. I don't know what im gonna do yet again im making this up as I go but so far it has been doing well. So without. Further. Ado.**

Chapter 6: Dreams

It was late when they made it back to the house. Technically it was early, Marco looked at the clock on the dash of their car; it read 3:28. Twelve hours ago him and Star had just gotten out of school, the only thing to worry about was the amount of homework they had. But now, Marco couldn't pick which thing to think about first. At the forefront of his mind was the fact that he had magical powers and the fact that he had saved Star twice with them. That brought up the second thing, Star had died. Her heart had stopped beating and she had stopped breathing, and Marco had thought that he had lost his whole world. Then by some miracle, he had revived her. At the time he felt so relieved, and he still did, but there was also a bit of worry inside of him. If his dream had been more than just that and was a warning to him about the future. In the dream Star was trying to kill him. Marco had ended up on the ground while Star got ready to fire a blast at his face. Then a cloaked stranger knocked her unconscious. The thing is, Marco was sure that the stranger was him. He had the same tattoos on his arm that Marco got from using magic.

But one other thing was nagging at the back of his mind. Right before this all happened, before the attack and the magic and all of that. Marco had woken from a nap that him and Star had, and looking at her sleeping Marco felt something. He could've sworn that he was about to kiss her, before they heard a huge crash. But no, that couldn't be true Marco liked Jackie Lynn Thomas. He's had a crush on her since kindergarten, and things had finally hit off between them. Marco had finally gotten over his anxiety and had talked to her, in a complete sentence. Marco couldn't have feelings for Star, she was his best friend always there for him, and he would always be there for her.

Marco was snapped out of his brooding when his dad pulled on the emergency brake. It rose with many clicks until it locked into place ensuring that the car would not move from its spot. Raphael and his wife unbuckled their seatbelts and looked back at the kids who were doing the same. They gave each other a look of understanding. Their questions could wait, the kids had had a long day and needed rest. They all got out of the car and walked silently inside. The four walked in and Raphael shut and locked the door behind them.

Angie turned on the light and Marco immediately saw the red stain on the floor. All of the blood had dried up but it would still need to be cleaned. Angie seeing the look on Marco's face went to reassure him, "It's okay sweetie, it can easily be cleaned." she gave him a small smile, which he returned, though with not much enthusiasm. There were still so many things running through his mind, he couldn't bring himself to properly respond so he just stayed silent. He felt his mom pat his shoulder before saying, "You two go upstairs and get some rest, you've had a long day."

"Thank you Mrs. Diaz" star said with a smile. She grabbed Marco's hand; he looked at her and smiled before they both headed upstairs.

"Oh and don't worry about school tomorrow, you two get the day off." Marco and Star thanked Mrs. Diaz and headed upstairs.

Raphael and Angie watched them go up and then looked at each other. Raphael stepped forward and embraced his wife. She buried her head in his chest and started crying. Raphael said nothing but just held her, rubbing her back. He knew how she was feeling; they had almost lost their son today. And while they wanted answers as to what happened the kids needed to rest and be done with the day.

Marco and Star walked up the stairs together not saying a word to each other. They got to their rooms and started preparing for bed. Marco kept his door open as he changed into his pajamas, not caring if Star saw him naked. It didn't matter though because as he walked out to brush his teeth he saw that her door was closed. She was probably falling asleep by now, Marco despite having slept in the hospital was exhausted. After he finished brushing his teeth he walked back to his room, looking over at Star's room before he headed inside and closed his door behind him. He was about to get into bed when he heard a soft knock at his door. He walked over and opened it to see Star standing there in her pajamas.

"Hey," she said in a soft voice. "I was wondering if you would, if you wanted to, if you would. Uhm, sleep with me tonight?" The question was somewhat surprising, while Star and him were really close they were still teens. Sleeping in someone else's bed with them usually meant that they were in an intimate relationship. But Marco was glad that she had asked, truth be told he didn't want to be alone tonight and Star was the only other person who could comprehend what he was feeling.

With a smile he hugged her, silently thanking her, "Of course, it will be like a sleepover." Her eyes brightened at the mention of a sleepover. She smiled and without another word rushed to her room. Marco chuckled and followed after her, closing his door. He walked in and looked around the room. It was the same as it always was. Messy, huge, regal. Marco spotted Stars spellbook propped up on a chair sitting by her table. It was closed and the blue keeper of the book was nowhere to be seen. Star had moved towards her bed waiting for him, he walked over as she pulled the comforter back and crawled in. He did the same and laid on his back looking at the ceiling.

Star lifted her upper back and moved Marco's right arm behind her. She then moved closer to him, pressing her warm body against his, and rested her head on his shoulder. She threw one arm over his waist brushing against a particular area that, despite his exhaustion, had begun to wake up. He couldn't help himself but inhale her scent, smiling as a sweet candy smell came to him. Before he had thought that she had used some kind of perfume, but now he was beginning to think that she didn't wear any.

Marco wrapped an arm around hers, lightly massaging her shoulder. "Thank you for sleeping with me tonight. I don't think that I can be alone right now."

He strained his eyes to look down at her brushing her head against his chin. "Neither could I"

She moved her head and looked up at him, "What? I thought that you were fine! I was wondering why you weren't freaking out."

He smiled at her, "I was freaking out; just after everything happened. And why do you think I would freak out? You didn't freak out." he put on an indignant look, challenging her.

"I was freaking out too, I've just been prepared all of my life to hide my feelings. And while I don't most of the time, I just didn't want you to see me that way." She looked down slightly ashamed. Marco kissed her head and said, "Star it's okay to freak out. It's not like you went through this alone, I was there too. If you want to talk about it then I'm here for you."

She looked back up at him and smiled, "Thank you Marco." then she did something that surprised him, she leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. Luckily she had put her head down before she saw the blush on his face. She gave her wand a little wave and the lights dimmed out. Star hoped that Marco hadn't seen how red her face was. What was she doing kissing Marco? He _was_ her best friend and he had saved her life. It had been a casual thing, nothing romantic. She was just nervous that he wouldn't want her to do things like that, I don't know maybe. Maybe I could do it again just to see if he is okay with it. If he isn't then I won't do it anymore no problem.

Her mind continued to race for another ten minutes before sleep finally took her. Marco was still awake, for some reason his mind wouldn't just let him go into that blissful state. He didn't really think about anything in particular, he just occupied his time by rubbing Star's back. He felt how slender yet muscular she was. He ran his hand up and down feeling the curve of her lower back, to the muscles at the top of her upper back. He couldn't help but think of moving his hand lower and feeling how curvy she truly was. He stopped moving his hand worried about the direction his mind was taking him. It was because she was a girl, he reassured himself, that was all. He hadn't realized that she had fallen asleep at first, but eventually it became apparent by the way her breathing was even and shallow. He smiled and sighed; for some reason he had not felt as if they were safe, until now that was. He just laid there feeling her chest rise and fall against him, enjoying the company of his closest friend. Eventually he himself fell asleep.

Marco.

He opened his eyes feeling a sense of alarm. He looked at the empty space next to him and jumped up in a panic. Where was she? He needed to find her immediately something was wrong. He threw the blankets off of him and ran towards the door hoping to find her. He opened the door and stepped back. Instead of the hallway that was connected to the rest of the house there was a vast emptiness, a dark void. He felt it pulling at him ripping his clothes away until he was only covered by his boxers. He tried hanging onto the door frame to prevent himself from being pulled in, but i was no use. The black void sucked him up and he was falling. He couldn't tell how long or far he fell for, but it was ended by him landing on solid ground. It didn't hurt but it knocked the wind out of him. As he gasped for air he stood up; light flooded the room and Marco had to shield his eyes. When he was able to see again he figured out what room he was in, the circular room at Saint Olga's. It was the same as the dream he had in the hospital, except this time there was no Star to be seen. No hooded figure either. Marco continued to look around him until he noticed that one of the long corridors had a light at the end of it. He walked towards it and came out the other side of the light. Like before he had to shield his eyes before he could see, and what he did see horrified him. Marco had been to Mewni a couple of times and to Marco it was one of the most beautiful places he had been to. But now, now it was horrifying. The once thriving cornfields were on fire, all of the crops had turned to ash. The castle was very much the same way. The once beautiful crystal towers were shattered, the walls crumbling, the mewman flag was no longer there; instead it was replaced by a purple flag with a green eye on it.

Marco looked at the town and saw that it was as in the same condition. He ran into the town and almost shouted in fear. There were bodies all over the place, most of them were burned so badly that they were just char. But the bodies that weren't crisped were worse. They were bloody and most had weapons sticking out of them. Some were mangled, as if an animal of some kind had attacked them. It took him a moment to realize that everything he saw was caused by monsters, their signs were all over the place. Claw marks in the stone, scorch marks much like the ones that he and Star had saw in the forest. Star! He didn't know where she was, he had to make sure that he was safe.

He ran between houses trying to reach the castle where he knew she would be. The drawbridge was down and the guards outside were dead. Feeling an increasing sense of dread Marco put on a burst of speed. He shot past the many rooms and chambers that the castle had, running straight for the throne room. He reached the large double doors that lead to the throne room, ignoring the ornate carvings he pushed the doors open and rushed in. Star was there she was kneeling beside what Marco could see were, bodies. Her mother and father. He approached her and looked over her shoulder, to his horror he saw that their eyes and mouths were opened, as if they were surprised by the creature who killed them. Before Marco could say or do anything Star stood up and turned to him. Her eyes were red and puffy but she looked furious.

"Are you happy now? Is it just like you wanted? Just like you dreamed?" She was advancing on him, he saw a harsh red glow emanating from the wand in her right hand. But there was another thing he noticed, he wasn't wearing his normal clothes anymore he was wearing a dark purple cloak that wrapped around his whole body. He pulled it to the front so that he could properly view it. He saw that on the back of it was a green eye, a copy of the one on the flag upstairs. Marco then realized that he was the one who had caused all of this. The burning of the crops, the destruction of the town, the death of Star's parents. He realized that somehow he had arranged all of this to happen; but he couldn't have. Marco would never do something like this.

Without warning Star lashed out. She aimed her wand at him and fired a powerful red blast. Unable to control his body, he elbowed her in the stomach knocking the breath out of her. Then shoved his right fist and punched her on the nose, following through he finished his uppercut throwing her head into the air. His tattoos started glowing bright blue as he grabbed her throat and slammed her to the ground. He wasn't quite strangling her but more of holding her. Marco couldn't believe what was happening, he didn't want to hurt Star but he couldn't stop his body from acting on its own.

She growled at him, "Do it. I have nothing left to lose." There was a deep sadness in her eyes as she gave up, knowing that her former friend had beaten her. Unable to stop himself his arms glowed and he felt energy flow through his hands, In a second she had turned to dust, gone from this world.

Marco finally regained control of his limbs and stared worriedly at his hands. They were covered in soot from where they touched Star. He heard a smooth voice pierce the silence. "Your fate has been sealed, the prophecy states that a child not born into magic would threaten the safety and lives of another child who was born into magic. There is no escaping your fate." Marco turned his head, tears streaming down his face, looking for the voice. He found nothing, except on the throne there was a wand. It was the wand Ludo had been carrying when he faced off against Star. It wasn't as elegant as hers was, this one made of rock and what looked like a hand bone. Marco approached the wand and was upon the throne when he noticed something behind it. He went around the chair and saw a familiar coat rack shaped like a human torso but with a mirror instead of the face. It also had a neat suit hanging from the shoulders with a tie hanging around its neck.

Marco approached the coat rack feeling a sense of foreboding. He couldn't tell why but he felt as if the coatrack was the most important thing, despite his killing his best friend mere seconds ago. He touched the side of the coat and immediately stepped back. For some reason he was wearing the suit. It fit perfectly, as if tailor made for him. He looked at the head of the coat rack, at the mirror, and backed away. Instead of his regular dark brown face he saw a deep purple one.

 _SOON_

Marco spun around looking for the source of the sound.

 _SOON_

"Marco! Marco! MARCO! WAKE UP!" Star was shaking him trying to get Marco to wake up. He sat up and groaned, he felt like his head was about to split open. He rubbed his temples with two fingers while Star sat staring at him, worry on her face.

He looked at her, "What? What's wrong?" her eyes widened like she couldn't believe he didn't know.

"You started muttering in your sleep, and then all the sudden you were screaming and throwing your arms around. I was worried I didn't know what was happening." She had started crying and quickly Marco threw his arms around her to comfort her.

"It was just a bad dream. I'm sorry I never meant to scare you like that."

"It's okay." she sniffed. She pulled back and wiped her face, looking at him she asked, "Do you want to talk about it?" Marco smiled feeling his heart swell a bit. Even when he had scared her she was still worried about him, he loved her so much; as a friend of course.

"Thank you but i'm fine, it was just a dream." She nodded understanding that it wasn't anything to worry about. "Do you want to go back to sleep?" She nodded again and they laid back down. This time on their sides facing each other. Marco slid his arm under her head and she draped her arm across his waist.

"I'm really sorry for scaring you like that." with his free hand he wiped a tear from her cheek rested his hand there stroking it with his thumb. She smiled and somewhat nuzzled into it.

"It's okay, i was just worried about you. Now sleep you need it. And try to not scare me anymore." He chuckled and put his hand back at his side. Her smile faltered a bit and she started to close her eyes. But opened them once more when Marco pressed forward a bit, Star automatically reacting leaned forward too angling her face up towards his. He kissed her on the forehead leaving a tingling feeling from the point of contact. For unknown reasons Star felt disappointed as if she was expecting more, but why should she? Did she expect Marco to kiss her on the lips? No that couldn't be it. After all they were best friends and they were like brother and sister right?

Her thoughts were halted when she realized that he had not fully pulled away. He had rested his head against hers, his face angling down but with his eyes closed. He must have been really exhausted because he was already asleep. She stared at him for a little bit longer before closing her eyes and falling asleep herself.

Star found herself in a hall facing a carved set of wooden doors. Without looking around she pushed them open and walked inside. She realized that she was in Grandmas room or more commonly known as the Room of Ancestors. This room contained tapestries of all of Star's ancestors as far back as they could remember. She had only been allowed in there once, and that was when she had been fourteen and had been granted her wand. The magic wand was a family heirloom that was passed down to each generation of butterfly. The incredibly powerful object changed its form to suit each princesses personality. The tapestries showed the princesses greatest achievement in their time as wand bearer. Star only remembered her mom's and that was because it was so cool. Star couldn't remember each specific detail, but she remembered it showing her mom blasting a monster with it.

Star made to walk towards the tapestry that depicted her mother but stopped when she saw a blue figure in front of her.

"Glossaryck? What are you doing here? What am I doing here?" The blue genie turned to face Star, floating just so that he was eye level with her.

"Oh hello Star. I imagine that you are wondering why you are here?"

"Uhm, yeah that's why I asked why I am here."

He looked down realizing his mistake, "Oh well i guess i'll just get on with it. Star you are in grave danger." She looked surprised at his sudden revelation. But he continued on with his explanation.

"Star did you know I have the ability to see different timelines each based on a certain action and their consequence?" Star shook her head, "Well I do. The fact is right now I see many futures that can come to be. And they are not good Star, at least not for you. And many of them include that Marco boy."

"Wait Marco is in danger?"

"In a way he is. I fear that he is the center of all of these timelines. Without getting into too much detail he will change your fate, one way or another."

"But wait, couldn't you just tell me what paths are the good paths? That way we can avoid the bad ones and then we wouldn't be in danger anymore." She sounded hopeful.

But the little blue man shook his head. "That's not how this works Star, from a time even I cannot remember others who have had this ability have know that they must never disclose what they know, or else it could affect all of the other timelines and then we would be in an even bigger situation."

She crossed her arms, frustrated, and sighed. "Well if you can't tell me why I'm in danger then why tell me i'm in danger at all?"

"Because Star, you need to prepare yourself for the dangers ahead. The more prepared you are for danger the better."

"And what if one of the good timelines come to pass? What if we prepared for nothing?"

"Then you will have accelerated your education a bit."

She groaned and turned to walk out of the room. She halted and then turned back. "Wait, aren't I sleeping? How are you talking to me?"

Glossaryck shrugged, "I needed to talk to you privately, and the mind is truly the safest place for private conversations. But it's time to wake up Star."

Star opened her eyes and saw that she was back in her bed. Marco was still asleep in front of her. Star groaned lightly as she turned, her neck and back were stiff from sleeping in the same position all night. She saw that the sun was up and thought that it might be a good idea for her to get up too. But laziness and the comfort of the bed made her lay back down.

She smiled breathing in Marco's earthy scent. He smelled like leaves and fresh earth. She brought her face closed to his, remembering how she almost kissed him last night. She pushed the thoughts out of her head and closed her eyes. Leaning into his warm body she felt herself drift off to sleep once more.

 **Hey guys really sorry for not updating in awhile, i have been busy with settling back into my dorm and trying to get my class schedule and all that. Thanks for waiting I know some of you messaged me to update and I did as fast as I could. I also tried to make this chapter longer, I know not a lot of stuff happened but at the same time I feel like it was kinda important.**

 **Also STARCO, is it gonna happen? I don't know, well I do but im not telling any secrets. Mwahahaha.**

 **Just a quick shoutout to Marstertheif1115, thank you so much it fills my heart to know that you really like my story, and the same goes for everyone else. Before I wasn't sure if I was going to finish this or how long I was going to make it but all the positive feedback has made me want to finish this and to make it as long as I can without droning on. Thank you guys so much I hope to see you all in the next chapter.**


	8. Chapter 7

**Hey guys here is another chapter this one is a bit shorter, im still trying to come up with how I should go with this part. I am so sorry that I haven't been able to upload its the first week of school and I have only morning classess so I am always super tired.**

 **I will try to update faster, especially since this is a short chapter. Thanks so much for all the reviews you guys have posted I hope you enjoy this story and I hope that you are excited for what I have planned; If i would ever update!**

 **So without further ado.**

Ch. 7 - Normal

Marco woke up and looked around. At first it didn't register where he was, then he remembered that Star wanted to him to sleep with her. He looked at his sleeping partner to the right of him. Her hair was a mess and she was lightly snoring with her mouth slightly open. She had both of her arms wrapped around his, which would explain the numbness coming from that area. He couldn't tell what time it was because Star didn't have a clock in her room, but he thought that it might be time to get up. His first attempt was unsuccessful; when he started to move Star tightened her grip around his arm. He chuckled, trying not to wake the sleeping princess he took back his arm. He noticed how she slightly frowned at the loss of the contact. He slowly got up so as not to disturb her and took one last look at her before heading out of the room and downstairs.

He was still in his pajamas, but he didn't really care. Since his mom had already told them that they were not going to school today. Marco figured he could just relax for once. He reached the bottom of the stairs and saw that his mom and dad were already awake. His mom was in the kitchen cooking some eggs and bacon, while his dad was sitting at the table reading a newspaper.

"Morning guys." He yawned as he walked over to the dining room and sitting down.

"Morning Miho", his mother said as she laid a plate of eggs, bacon, and toast in front of him.

He started wolfing down the delicious food, not realizing how hungry he had been. He guess it had been since lunch yesterday since he last ate. He was done with the eggs and was starting on the strips of bacon when Star came downstairs. Unlike Marco she had dressed herself in one of her usual outfits.

She came down the stairs wearing a sky blue sleeveless dress. The hem of it only reached to her middle thigh, and was held at the waist by a red ribbon. She also had striped blue leggings to cover her legs. She wasn't wearing any shoes with them which meant that she wasn't planning on going anywhere. She sat down at the table and Marco's mom put a plate in front of her.

Raphael put his newspaper down and looked at the kids.

"So how did you two sleep?"

Star swallowed, "Really good. Woke up a few times but still slept good."

Marco nodded, "Same I only woke up once, and I had a weird dream." He glanced at Star with a weird look on his face, and she noticed it. Quickly looking away he saw the next question on his father's mind.

"I bet you're wondering what happened last night?" Raphael looked up at Angie who had now turned the stove off. She went and stood behind him looking concerned. They shook their head in confirmation. Star had also stopped eating, she too was looking towards Marco; while she knew what happened in the end and how they got back she didn't really know the beginning. Somewhere during the fight she got knocked out, and somehow Marco had defeated the giant minotaur that she was fighting.

Marco looked at all three of them, took a deep breath, and went on a long story of what had happened. He covered their dimension hopping to the forest, and the nice picnic that Star had made for them. He skipped them sleeping together and most of the details on the monster battle, including Star dying. Marco wasn't sure if Star knew what had happened, but he wanted to talk to her alone about it. He then went on explaining how they ran for the cave, and were ambushed when they got in. Angie had started tearing up, and had raised her hand to her mouth to prevent herself from crying. Raphael looked at the pair in disbelief, wondering how two teenagers could go through so much and not be affected that much by it.

Marco started to falter in his story, "After the minotaur pinned me to the wall I don't really remember what happened."

Star spoke up, "I do." and excitedly she started explaining how Marco had glowed blue and had used magic to kill the monsters that were attacking him. Marco pulled back the sleeves of his pajamas. He looked at his arms, covered in tattoos. How was he ever going to explain them to people. Well, luckily he always wore his signature red hoodie, so they wouldn't be much of a problem. He had to admit, while he didn't really plan on ever getting a tattoo he thought they looked really cool. Criss crossing lines across his arms, from his shoulders to his wrists weren't so bad.

Last night he had checked out his back and was amazed. The tattoo wasn't just some random design, it was detailed. On his back was the symbol of a sun and the criss cross lines even went to his legs. Oddly enough his chest and stomach remained unmarked, but the rest of him showed signs of magic. He noticed his mom staring at him and he smiled at her showing her that he was doing alright. This seemed to make her sadder for some reason, but Marco brought back his attention to Star who was finishing up her story.

"And after he passed out I opened the portal and brought him back here. The rest you know." Mr. and Mrs. Diaz looked at each other, seeming to be having a conversation without using words. They came to some sort of consensus because they nodded at each other and then turned back to the kids.

"Well we are glad that you two are safe." Raphael said

"And we are extremely happy that you can use magic now, though you should really get a teacher so you don't hurt yourself."

Marco looked at Star with a look of surprise on his face; Star didn't return the look however, she was looking at Mrs. Diaz.

"Oh don't worry, I know the perfect person who can teach Marco. He'll be using magic like me in no time." With that she picked up her wand with a twirl ad accidentally shot a narwhal blast at the wall. "Or ya know maybe not" she said apologetically.

After that Star and Marco went upstairs to Star's room where they just hung out for the day. Marco was thinking about the events of the day before; he felt changed. Not only did he learn how to use magic, but he had also seen his best friend die. He had left that part out of the story partially because he didn't want to announce it casually, but also he wasn't sure how he would react to it. So far he had been okay, but he kept glancing at her waiting for her to drop dead as if his magic had no effect. He had also decided not to tell her about his dream. If it was real and he was part of this large prophecy then he couldn't talk to Star about it. But he had to know more but he didn't know who to talk to. Glossaryck most likely wouldn't help without some pudding, the little blue genie loved pudding. But Marco didn't know who to talk to.

Right now he had a different problem, Star. He had to tell her, right now she was lying on her bed flipping through her spell book, trying to find something on learning magic and controlling it. Marco walked over to her and sat on the bed next to her.

"Find anything yet?" he said as he eased down, resting a hand on her back.

"No. Ugh why is this so hard? I can't find anything." Marco rubbed her back to comfort her.

"It's okay Star we could always ask Glossaryck whenever he gets back. The little blue genie had left for some event and had said that he would be back later tonight. He continued rubbing Star's back as he spoke again.

"Star, we need to talk. About yesterday." She shifted her head to look at him still lying on her stomach. Marco had to tell Star what had really happened. He didn't know how long he could keep this to himself, everytime he saw Star she would have that glazed look in her eyes and wouldn't be breathing. He also felt like Star should know what happened, for some reason it felt wrong that he knew but she didn't. He opened his mouth to continue but they were interrupted by a flash of purple.

A small purple man with a large gem in his even larger forehead appeared. Glossaryck was back.

 **Again guys sorry for the short chapter but I'm super busy already, i just got sony vegas pro so im editing videos on top of the schoolwork i already have and my life is just a mess. I really enjoy writing especially since I have this story and I have you guys. Thanks again so much, hope you enjoyed.**

 **Also I will try to update a little bit more later this week since this one was kinda short. Thanks for reading.**


	9. Chapter 8

**Okay i realized a typo at the end of the last chapter, glossaryck is blue not purple, now that I have established that I can successfully say that I have somewhat of a schedule. I am going to try to write a little bit each day and hopefully get a chapter out every three days. It may not always be that way but I will try as hard as I can to do it.**

 **So the muses have blessed me with ideas and so I have decided to make this chapter as long as I could (kek). Anyways, this chapter will focus more on Marco, since I see him as the main character more. I know they are both the mains, but lets be realistic. Marco has to choose Star or Jackie.**

 **I'm half tempted to skip to where I want to go with the story, but at the same time I know that is just me wanting you guys to read what my idea is. So without a further ado...**

Chapter 8: Abnormal Day

The blue man looked at the two teens in silence. He noticed something different about the two of them. Glossaryck had the ability to sense the presence of magic, usually it was all over Star considering how often she whipped out her wand. But oddly enough there was a ton of magical energy around the boy. Glossaryck could sense the potential power, but Star had changed too. While her aura was usually focused around her wand it seemed to be focused around her heart; the same as Marco's. He scowled and decided to greet the pair.

"What? No hello?"

Star was the first to move, she jumped off the bed and ran towards the hovering figure.

"Glossaryck you're back! We need your help with something." Glossaryck sighed. It was always this way, he went to a meeting or a vacation and suddenly things went to hell.

"How was your meeting?" Marco asked.

Glossaryck turned to the boy smiling, "Very good thank you for asking".

"Yeah yeah yeah," interrupted an irritated Star. "We really need your help." Star went on to explain the events of the night prior and how Marco had single handedly defeated an entire army of monsters. Glossaryck listened, seeming uninterested, but in actuality was very much so. This would explain why the boy had such a powerful aura about him, and quite a few things concerned him. What were monsters doing on the edge of Mewman corn fields tearing the place down? Even though it was no matter to him, he lived to serve the holder of the wand, he was partial to Moon Butterfly the current queen. He gathered his thoughts as Star finished her story,

"So yeah Marco developed magic and we were attacked."

"And, what exactly do you need my help for?"

Star looked confused, as if the problem was obvious, "Well, how did Marco develop magic? And what were monsters doing in my forest?"

Glossaryck noticed that Star was getting upset, but he continued to watch silently as Marco grabbed her shoulder which seemed to calm her almost immediately. That was good, if what Glossaryck suspected was true then they would need each other in the near future.

"Well in all of my years I have never seen a non magical person develop the ability to use magic. Which must mean that either one or more of your parents are able to use magic or we are seeing something extraordinary, happening for the first time."

Star looked at Marco and back at Glossaryck, "Well which one is it?"

Glossaryck turned his gaze to the boy, "Your parents have no trace of magic on them, so I would say that we are witnessing a first time event." Glossaryck recalled something he had known long ago. It might explain why the boy could suddenly use magic, but no that couldn't be it. He had accidentally uttered that last part of his thoughts because Star questioned him.

"What? What couldn't what be?" He shook his head, "Oh it's nothing, at least I hope not. Well I'm off I got things to do. Call me if you need me." Without another word, he slipped into Stars spellbook closing the leatherbound as he disappeared. Marco and Star took that as usual behaviour for the little blue man, he usually left a cryptic message before leaving them to their own devices. With a whole day to themselves Star and Marco spent it the best way they knew how: watching movies and eating nachos.

It had been two days since Marco and Star went into the forest, and no matter how much they wanted to stay home they had to go to school. They had already missed two days of school, and Marco could not afford to fall behind. He was glad that yesterday Alphonzo and Ferguson had showed up with him and Star's homework, which they spent about two hours completing.

Marco groaned as he sat up. Turning off his alarm he threw off his night shirt and walked into the bathroom. He stared at his tattoos as he brushed his teeth. He felt as if they weren't really there, kind of surreal. He didn't think that he would ever get used to them. But at the same time they were a part of him know, and he had to get used to them being there. The question is: did he tell other people about them, try to cover them, or just act normal and if anyone discovered them make something up? For now Marco decided to play it normally, his hoodie and jeans would cover them up easily. The only thing he would have to worry about was P.E. where they were required to wear shorts and a t-shirt. He might be able to wear his hoodie, but that left his legs exposed. He sighed as he started combing his hair. There was no way around it, people would find out eventually why not just let it happen naturally?

Star stumbled into the bathroom, looking tired as usual.

"Morning Marco," she yawned before picking up her brush and getting started on her jungle of hair.

"Morning Star." he replied taking a step to his left and putting on his deodorant. They continued their primping, both waking up more and more. Star's eyes were no longer puffy and her hair was lying flat against her back. She had changed into her green dress with purple leggings beforehand, and was currently fixing her horn bandana in place. She glanced at Marco and noticed that he was still shirtless. She couldn't help but thinking how well the karate lessons were doing for him. His shoulders were broad and squared, his arms were not quite bulging but Star could tell there was some muscle there. Her eyes traveled down catching a glimpse of his abs before he turned his back to her. Walking out of the bathroom Star had the tattoo in full view.

He had shown it to her the night before and when she saw it she knew it was powerful. There wasn't any sort of practiced religion on Mewni but everyone knew that the universe worked in mysterious ways. One of its most powerful creations was the sun, such as the one shown on Marco's back. The sun signified power and leadership and while Star didn't exactly know what him having it branded on his back meant she knew that he was being guided by the universe.

He walked back in a second later with a pair of jeans and a white t-shirt on.

"How are you going to cover those up?" she asked finishing her task of putting her headband on. He looked in the mirror at his arms.

"I thought I would just dress normally and if anyone asked I would just show them."

"Oh okay." She smiled. To be honest she like the tattoos, it made Marco look a bit more masculine.

They finished getting ready for school, ate a quick breakfast, and left the house to start their day. It wasn't long before they reached their school. Marco felt unsettled by it, almost as if he was expecting it to change in someway. But no, it was the same old school with the same old teachers.

They reached Marco's locker and he stored the homework he wouldn't need until later in the day, swapping them out for his books.

"Marco?" he heard a voice say to his right. He leaned back and saw that it was Jackie. He started to wave hi as she rushed forward and hugged him hard. Squeezing him hard she buried her head into his neck, nuzzling him. She was shaking, Marco rubbed her back wondering what was wrong.

She pulled back and looked into his eyes, hers swelling with tears, "Where were you? What happened to you? I tried calling you a million times, why didn't you answer me? I heard you were in the hospital they said you were hurt really bad, and I couldn't visit you."

Marco stopped her by putting a hand on her cheek, which she leaned into. "Jackie calm down i'm alright. See? Not hurt. I can't explain it all right now because it's a really long story. But i'm fine okay?" he wiped a tear away with his thumb, she grabbed his wrist and nodded. Marco didn't know what had gotten into her or how she had heard that he was in the hospital.

She hugged him again, "I'm glad you're safe. But you owe me an explanation." The usually cool, calm, and collected Jackie was gone; this was a side of her that Marco had never seen before. Usually she took everything as if it were nothing, but now she seemed really upset. While Marco didn't like seeing her like this he took some pleasure in it. She was worried about him and cared about him.

He pulled back this time, "Don't worry I definitely will, maybe over lunch?" She smiled at his suggestion, "Marco Diaz are you asking me out on a date?" she teased. Marco's face turned a deep shade of red and before he could form a syllable, "I would love to."

She let go of him and grabbed her skateboard, which she had dropped a few feet away. She walked back towards him, and winked as she past him, "See you at lunch, Marco." She continued to walk past him, he was just staring at her back until she turned the corner.

He leaned against the wall, staring into oblivion. "I can't believe I asked Jackie out on a date; and she said yes." He felt a touch on his right arm, and saw that it was Star.

"Good for you Marco, now come on let's go to class." Marco was too delirious to notice the strain in her voice. He let her lead him to the class, in a daze the entire way. Right before he entered class, he cleared his head, squared his shoulders and walked into the classroom feeling confident. He got halfway to his desk before his right foot hit the back of his left foot, causing him to tumble to the ground. He hurriedly got up and jumped into his desk hiding his red face from the class.

"Diaz, Butterfly! I expect both of you have your homework assignments for the two days you were absent!?" their teacher Skullnick bellowed at them. They nodded and handed their assignments in then returned to their seats. They had the same homeroom teacher last year as they did this year. Ms. Skullnick was this hideous beast of a woman that everyone detested, and that was before Star turned her into a troll. Since then she isn't as bad. Marco and Star sat through the whole period bored.

Lunch could not roll around any faster, Marco thought. For the millionth time in a minute he looked at the clock willing it to go faster. He wasn't even listening to the teach, all he could think about was his date with Jackie. Was it even a date? She did ask if it was a date and then say yes. Either way, he could not afford to fuck this up. Everything had to be perfect, he had to stay calm and collected.

"Mr. Diaz, are you paying attention?" his psychology teacher asked. She was a short woman, about 5 2'. She looked at him with large bespectacled eyes expecting an answer.

"Yes ma'am." She harrumphed and turned back towards the board where she was drawing a pyramid. Marco sighed in relief. He looked again at the clock, and felt a tingle in his lower gut. It was almost time for lunch. As soon as the bell rang he got up from his desk and left,

"Mr. Diaz, a word please." his rush was halted by the teacher. He groaned inwardly as he walked back to her desk. She shuffled some papers around before looking up at him.

"I heard of what happened, and I was just making sure that you were okay. Not many people go through an attack like that and come away unscathed." She looked at him expectantly, waiting for an answer. Marco was surprised he never thought a teacher would care enough about him to worry about him.

"Y-yeah im okay. We didn't get hurt badly, and we were able to get away safely." he knew she didn't believe the lie but he hoped that she would drop the subject; Marco didn't feel that comfortable talking to a teacher about the incident. Hell him and Star haven't really talked about it, and Marco still hadn't told Star what happened to her. Everytime he tried something inside him told him not to, as if it would hurt her. She nodded, "Okay, well I am glad that you are okay. And remember, if you ever need to talk I'm here for you."

"Thanks I will." he walked out of the room waiting until he got into the hall to start sprinting. He hurried as much as he could to the front doors of the school. Standing there waiting he saw Jackie, she saw him approaching and smiled.

"Hey, sorry I'm late my teacher held me back."

"Not getting into trouble again are you? We're gonna have to give you a different nickname, 'Safekid' doesn't quite fit you anymore." She made a show of analyzing him up and down.

"Haha, very funny. And no I didn't get in trouble the teacher just wanted to make sure I was alright, after ya know."

"No I don't actually. Which is why you're taking me out to lunch right?" she smiled and put a hand on her hip. He took the implication and smiled back.

"Funny, I don't remember saying I would treat you to lunch." she snapped her fingers, "Damn and I was hoping for a free meal." They laughed, and Marco reached around her to open the door.

"After you m'lady." he said gesturing her out.

"M'lady? I like that" she laughed and then walked past him, flipping her hair in his direction. He caught a breath of sea and breathed it in. It was salty but fresh at the same time. He followed her out and together they walked towards a food cart nearby.

Usually the school would prefer that students stayed on the grounds throughout the day, but they had no way of stopping the flood of students going off for better food. It was mostly seniors who did this but a few of the underclassmen had the money to spend.

They approached the food truck that was stationed a few blocks away. Marco ordered two hotdogs, and Jackie ordered some nachos. Despite what he said earlier Marco paid for their meal. They sat down at a bench not too far from the stand, facing out towards the highway.

They had finished most of their food when Jackie spoke up, "So, what exactly happened to you? Just one day you didn't show up and all I heard was that some kid saw you and Star in the hospital." her eyes were focusing on his, sad and curious. He swallowed the last of his hot dog and started to speak. Much like with his parents there were a few details he was leaving out, including Star dying. As his story went on Jackie's eyes got wider and her mouth hung open. She blinked in surprise when she learned that Marco could use magic. He wrapped up the story by assuring her that he and Star were fine.

"Wow, that's… something. I can't believe you did all that." he blushed a bit at how amazed she was.

"Well I didn't do everything, I don't even know how to control my magic." he remembered something. "Oh speaking of which, there was a side effect the magic had on me." Jackie looked even more concerned now.

"Side effect? What do you mean?" Marco lifted the sleeves of his hoodie up and shower her his arms. She stared in awe at the designs.

"It goes all the way around my arms and legs and onto my back." he said proudly. While he was still getting used to seeing them they were a part of him know, and it symbolized his abilities.

"That's pretty cool," she seemed to think for a moment, "Did it hurt getting them?"

He rolled his sleeves back up, "Well you see," he chuckled nervously, "I kinda blacked out when it happened. I don't really remember much of it; just a feeling I had when I used it."

She nodded, "Yeah I guess using magic for the first time would drain you." She smiled at him, "at least you are okay. When I heard that you were in the hospital I tried to come and see you, but my dad wouldn't let me." Marco couldn't help but stare at her open mouthed. He just couldn't believe that she had tried to come and see him, she really did like him.

She stared back at him, but not in a challenging way. Their contest more like a show of adoration, each gazing peacefully into each other's eyes. Marco, unconsciously, began to lean forward; Jackie had started to as well. Their eyes closed slowly as they leaned in, Marco could smell her sea breeze scent. He wrinkled his nose a bit and peeked at Jackie, seeing that her eyes were closed he thanked God inwardly. For some reason he wasn't enjoying her scent, not as much as he thought he would. They were so close now,

"Hey!" interrupted a male voice. Marco and Jackie's head snapped towards the sound, both furious at the interruption. It was Oscar, the brown haired boy was walking towards them with a smile. It was hard to see Oscar's eyes, because his hair covered them, so Marco couldn't tell if he was walking towards them or a table behind them. It ended up being the table behind them because he skirted around them to sit with some older guys.

Marco looked at Jackie and let out a nervous laugh, lifting a hand to the back of his neck, "Well we should be going back."

Jackie was similarly flustered, she was wringing her hands together as if they were cold. "Yeah you're right." They were both flushed at what just happened, or what almost happened. As they got up and walked back to school each of them gave Oscar a stare that could kill a giant. He seemed to notice because his smile faded and his head was tilted to the side in confusion.

They walked back at a leisurely pace, they had about twenty minutes to spare before they got to class. They joked the whole way there, mostly about their classmates. Marco had never know that Jackie hated Brittney Wong, the most popular girl in school. Apparently they had once been friends, but that was before Brittney became a spoiled brat. Marco walked Jackie all the way to her next class.

"I had fun Marco, thanks for taking me out to lunch."

He rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah, I had fun too. We should totally do this again." He eyes brightened up, and she nodded her head eagerly. "Totally." They stood there for a second before Jackie turned her head up; the warning bell had rang, signaling that they had five minutes before their next class started.

"Well you should probably get to class, can't have the safe kid be late." she gave him a wink to let him know that she was joking; and as casual as it was, Marco couldn't help but blush a little.

"Yeah, can't ruin my reputation. Welp." Jackie had started to turn towards her class but stopped. She seemed to ponder something for a second before turning back and giving Marco a peck on the cheek. She turned to the classroom quickly to hide the fact that she was blushing. Marco was glad because he couldn't stop himself from blushing either. He walked to his class in pure euphoria, a stupid grin painted on his face. The teacher looked at him in surprise as Marco walked in. Ignoring the face the boy was making the teacher started calling attendance.

(Quick Disclaimer: This part contains underaged fighting, near death, and a character I made for this purpose... Carry on.)

The bell rang, signaling the end of class, Marco and the other students shuffled along to their next class. Marco had gym next, which he wasn't really looking forward to. First off it was the place where he got his label as the "Safe Kid". He wore a helmet in the shower one time and suddenly you are the safe kid. Those showers were slippery, someone could seriously injure themselves! Secondly, Marco couldn't think of a way to hide his tattoos. He supposed he could try and put his gym shirt on and then take his other shirt off, like he saw in the movies. His legs he wasn't so worried about, the boys were scared to look past the neck in case they saw something.

Marco kept thinking of ways he could hide his tattoos all the way to the gym. It was part of the main building, but it branched way off from the other classrooms. He got inside and walked quickly to his locker, fortunately there weren't many people around. His two friends Alfonzo and Ferguson were already there and changed. Marco had told them about the tattoos, they were his best friends after all, but they hadn't seen them yet. They spotted him and immediately walked over.

"Hey" said Ferguson, despite getting the largest shirt size he could his gut still hung out a bit from the grey shirt he was wearing.

"Hey" Marco replied, he opened his locker and grabbed his clothes. He looked around the gym to see if there was a place he could hide and change; there was the showers but Marco didn't want to go in there. It wasn't the fact that they were dangerous, but some people had a tendency to go in there and open the curtains while someone was showering. One such person just so happened to walk in.

Travis Kyler, a three hundred pound, 6 foot tall manchild was the bane of many people's existence; specifically those at the bottom of the foodchain. This baby face, mountain of a teen was a regular in the principal's office. He was often there for giving swirlies to other students, beating up kids that messed with him, and rumor is that he broke into a gas station and was let go because of how intimidating he is. Of course Marco didn't believe that, nevertheless he couldn't but help being intimidated by the giant. Not only was his size extremely abnormal but he was also able to do anything he wanted to. Besides being a deviant he was also the greatest linebacker that their football team had ever seen. That kid could block three players at once, take down anyone stupid enough to challenge him, and if you gave him the ball he would plow through players like a tractor. These all combined to make him one of the scariest boys in Marco's grade.

The fact that he was in their gym class made it all the worse. Travis walked in and immediately walked to his locker. Without even looking around the boy took off all of his clothes and changed. Marco was surprised the first time he saw what Travis really looked like. As large as he was Marco expected Travis to be overweight, but in reality Travis was muscular. He reminded Marco a lot of the minotaurs he and Star had fought; but that minotaur had been an infant compared to Travis.

Marco took his opportunity, everyone was focusing on Travis trying not to catch his attention, so nobody was paying attention when Marco let his tattoo's flash for a second. Dressed in the required clothing Marco put his hoodie back on in order to cover his arms. But his legs were still showing; he would just have to hope that nobody mentioned it. He doubt that people wouldn't see them.

The coach came into the locker room and started taking roll call. With everyone present he blew his whistle, which echoed around the tiled room, and the boys ran outside. They walked to the football field, where the girls of their class were already waiting. Most of the girls acted like the boys weren't even there. Marco wished that Star was in his class, he would at least have someone else he knew, but alas he was stuck with Brittney Wong; a brat who acted like she deserved everything in life.

Ferguson interrupted his thoughts, "So we saw you walking outside with Jackie during lunch. Care to share?" Marco, who had forgotten about their date, began to recall the events. He spilled everything he could trying not to sound like a fangirl who met their favorite author.

"Wow that's pretty cool, you went on a date with Jackie." Alfonzo commented once Marco's story was finished.

"Well, it wasn't really a date. I mean we just had lunch."

"That sounds like a date to me." Ferguson said with a smug look. Marco opened his mouth to say something when a shrill valley girl like voice came from behind him.

"Ha, Jackie Lynn Thomas going out with you the safe kid? Yeah right, In your dreams nerd." She let out a cackle which her group of followers echoed.

"Come on. Don't listen to her, she's just jealous because she will never find somebody who likes her for her, and not for her thousand dollar job." Marco stared at Ferguson in surprise. Brittney was no longer smiling, the insinuation that her looks were fake had hit a nerve. Instead of blowing up like Marco thought she would she gave a huff and walked away.

Ferguson lead Marco away from her, "Dude that was kinda low. Thank you though." Marco gave a gracious smile. Ferguson smiled back at him, and they gathered around as the coach blew the whistle.

They were exhausted by the end of the period. Their coach believed that their generation was lazy and unmotivated, so he made it his personal mission to get them in shape. For a lot of kids this was a problem; Ferguson for example had a hard time doing all of the running and stair that the coach had made them do that day. Others, like Marco and Travis had no problem doing them. Marco had a hard time near the end when the coach kept pushing him to go faster, but luckily Marco only had one more class before he could go home and shower. Travis seemed to not have been affected by the workout, nevertheless the boy gathered his clothes and headed off to the shower rooms with just a sneer. He always looked like everyone else was inferior to him, no matter what context. He shoved a scrawny kid out of his way, knocking the boy down. Some laughed at him, but Marco went over and helped him up.

The boy nodded his thanks and then scrambled up to his locker. Most of the guys who laughed were also football players. They weren't really famous among the team or anything, but they all treated Travis with respect. Marco started changing himself, first putting on his jeans before taking his shirt off. He completely forgot about the tattoos on his back, and he failed to notice a large presence behind him. He felt a brick wall slamming onto his back sending him face first into his locker. He jumped up and saw that Travis, fully clothed, had slapped him on the back.

"Look at your stupid tattoos. What are they the ones that you get by putting a wet paper on your back?" The insult wasn't even funny, but Travis and his friends still laughed. Marco frowned and decided not to respond. Instead he turned his back on the boy and started to gather his shirt. He surged forward again, but this time he caught himself before slamming into the locker.

He whirled around and again found that Travis had hit him. Marco squared his shoulders and tried to make himself look bigger, which failed miserably. Travis saw the challenge and loomed over Marco. But before either boy could make a move a large figure, not as large as Travis, tackled the manbeast to the ground. It was Ferguson, the large boy had taken the beast to the ground and was now beating on him saying things like "not my friend" and "you giant asshole".

But none of it was affecting Travis, for he just rolled and started pounding on Marco's friend. Unable to respond Marco stood by as his other friend joined the fray. It was two on one now, and Marco's friends were losing miserably. Marco wanted desperately to join in and protect his friends, much like they had protected him, but he couldn't. He just stood there as his other classmates cheered on the fight. The coach had long left and so couldn't come and a break up the fight.

Alfonzo, who had grabbed onto Travis's back, was slammed against a wall and was knocked unconscious. Ferguson meanwhile, beaten and bloody, was being pinned against that same wall. Travis kept the boy in place with one hand, while his right hand reached back in preparation for a hard punch.

Travis was about to bring his arm down when he felt a hand grab it. He turned his head in search of his next victim and saw that it was the boy with the tattoos, which were still showing. Travis tried to bring his arm down to throw the boy off, but found he couldn't. Even though Marco was only holding on with one hand he kept Travis's arm in place. Marco's eyes, which had been closed, opened. Travis let go of Ferguson and turned to fully face Marco, whose eyes had changed. They were no longer brown but electric blue.

Travis brought his left hand up and then down, but Marco easily caught it. Marco stared Travis right in the eyes, and Travis blinked. Suddenly he was across the room lying on the floor. The onlookers were silent, they didn't know what was going on and were slightly afraid. Travis got up and readied himself for a fight. Marco meanwhile just stood there, looking at the larger boy, sizing him up. His tattoos glowed blue, outlining Marco's back, arms, and legs. Travis hoping to catch Marco off guard ran forward. Marco just stood there and simply raised his right hand.

Travis was stopped, dead in his tracks. He couldn't explain it, all of his momentum was lost. He couldn't move no matter how hard he tried. His mind began to panic, he didn't know how Marco was doing it and he was afraid, very afraid. Marco closed his fist and suddenly Travis couldn't breathe. He started gasping for air, he felt like his lungs were being crushed. Some of the onlookers had ran to get the coach others had started pleading with Marco.

"He can't breathe."

"You are going to kill him."

"Stop, please!"

Marco simply looked at them, deadpan. They flinched; those who knew Marco knew that this demon wasn't him. It was something in the eyes that gave it away, not the fact that they were blue, but they had a different look to them; the look of someone about to murder. But they flickered, somewhere in there Marco knew what was happening, he knew that he had to stop it. So he did. Marco let go, and the boy took a large gasp of air before coughing a bunch.

Marco looked at his hands, they weren't his anymore. He knew what he was doing but he didn't stop himself, not until the last second. What was he doing? He saw the other boys looking at him in fear, and not knowing what to do he grabbed his things and ran out. Unfortunately he ran right into the coach, who was followed by a uniform and the principal. The coach looked at Marco and then at the boy lying on the ground. His mind jumped to a few conclusions but he set them aside for now.

"Diaz, Kyler in the principal's office; now. Neither boy disobeyed him, Marco was grabbed by the arm by one of the uniforms, and so was Travis. The whole way Marco was running through a hundred scenarios, wondering what his parents would think, would he be expelled, and how long would he be grounded for.

Travis could only think about how terrified he was of the boy, and how close to death he had come to. While Marco never meant to do any of this, and while it had protected his friends, he felt nothing but fear and remorse.

 **Hey guys hoped you enjoyed the long chapter, I thought I would give you one since I havent been posting a lot.**

 **So wow, lot of shit happened. Got some plot development, got some Jarco, which I know yall love, and we got to see a side of Marco that even he didn't know about.**

 **I honestly cannot remember what I wrote at the beginning of the chapter XD it's been so long. But it's totally worth it. So I started posting this on Archive of our own and on Wattpad if you have friends that go to those sites please tell them to check me out.**

 **As always comments are much appreciated I love your guys's support and feedback so please keep comming with them. I'm already thinking about another idea for SVTFOE and maybe a miraculous fanfic, I love them kid shows XD.**

 **Anyways thank you so much for reading, again leave a comment down below follow me on Twitter KioBowden, and a spoiler we are about to get into the real meat of the story really soon.**

 **Final thing once the 6th hits and the show comes back, I will go off branch form the story, so far I have been trying to keep the show as part of the timeline but with the new episodes I will not be doing that. Again thanks for reading, I will see you in the next chapter.**


	10. Chapter 9

***Peeks out from behind corner* Heyyyyy, how you been? Good? That's good. So uh, seven months. Damn, that is an extremely long time for a story update. I am so sorry, i've been having some troubles recently with my personal life. A fat bastard laziness keeps me from being motivated to do anything XD. Yeah but seriously guys so sorry about this long wait, i've been writing bits and pieces of the story here and there, but from my last update to may i've been doing school work. And i've started streaming, thats a lot of work, and i've just had a couple of things going on. At the end of the day I would try to write a little bit but it wouldn't amount to anything. But, But, and what a big butt it is, I am going to start updating again, regularly. So i'm looking forward to that, i've also started editing my own work, which as some of you can tell i really need XD. But thank you guys so much for everything, especially some of the messages i've been getting mostly just asking when the update is but I still love knowing someone is waiting for me XD. But I made this one kinda long, little bit of Jarco in there, :3 also a bit more plot. The next few chapters are going to get shit going for the story. So a little bit of fluff on the way, but also quite a bit more beelining shit so i'm excited for that. Also maybe, MAYBE, a bit of smut. Still deciding. I might save that for another fic ;). Anyhoo, without a further ado, Chapter 9 of Cleaved.**

Chapter 9: Taken

"Marco Ubaldo Diaz! What on Earth were you thinking? This is not like you, choking a boy almost to death! What is the matter with you?"

Marco turned his head away in shame unable to look his mother in the eyes. They were in the hallway outside of the principal's office. Marco and Travis had been separated, much to Travis's relief, and each were forced to gi've their personal account of the event. When he had listened to both boy's accounts, the principal couldn't believe either of them. It seemed unlikely that Travis, a boy twice Marco's size, was taken down by the "Safe Kid". Nevertheless he was forced to call each boy's parents and have them deal with it. He gave them both a week of detention and then forced them to wait outside in the hall.

When the parents came, the principal had them both come inside and explained to them the incident. Travis's mom came out first and without a word they immediately left for home. Marco's mom came out second, and without even needing to look at her knew that he was going to get the scolding of his life.

"I don't know. I just saw him beating up Ferguson and Alfonzo and something took over. Next thing I know I was on top of him, holding him down. I'm sorry." Angie softened up a bit. She was being a bit harsh on him; he had gone through a lot this last week.

"I still don't understand, but I'm going to let you off this once." Marco looked up in surprise. He wasn't quite sure if he was hearing her right.

"But you are grounded for two weeks okay? That means no magic, no hanging out with friends, and no dimension hopping. When you get out of school I want you to come straight home you hear me?" Marco nodded his head still confounded that he was getting off so easily.

"And if I hear you get into another fight your punishment is going to be a lot worse." She changed her tone, "I know things are rough especially with what happened recently. But that still doesn't gi've you the right to beat up other kids. Even if it's for the right reasons. Now, I am going to head back to the house. I have a lot of things to do. Remember what I said, straight home after school. I love you honey."

"Love you too mom." Marco watched as she walked out the school's front doors. He slowly walked back to class, his mind reeling at what just happened. He couldn't remember anything. One moment he was watching Travis beat up his friends, the next thing he knew he was choking the boy out. Next thing Marco knew he was being scolded by his mother, and then she had let him off. He was grounded for two weeks, but that wasn't really much. What had happened though? Marco entered his class and everybody looked up at him. He walked into the room and sat next to Star in front of the class. While he kept his head forward, he could feel everybody's gaze burning into the back of his head. The teacher, after a slight delay, continued to write on the board explaining how the Mongols were the most feared warriors of their time.

Star leaned over to Marco and whispered, "Is it true? Did you really get into a fight? What happened?"

Marco shot a glance at the teacher to make sure that he hadn't heard them. "I'll explain later, but how did you know that I had gotten into a fight?"

"I just heard it through the grapevine.", Star looked pleased at knowing what the grapevine meant.

The teacher looked towards the pair shooting them a warning look. When she had turned her back on them Star leaned over again, "So what happened?"

"Star I can't explain it here okay? I'll tell you when we get home." Star grumbled at him and leaned back in her desk, resuming the blank stare she always had in class. Marco turned his head to the front of the classroom. He tried his hardest to ignore it but no matter what he couldn't stop himself from hearing the people behind him whispering.

"Is it true?"

"Did he really beat up Travis?"

"No it couldn't be not the safe kid."

Marco closed his eyes and prayed that they would just stop. His prayer was answered by the teacher turning around and asking the class what was so interesting, to which they responded with silence. It remained that way until the final bell. When the bell had rung Marco looked at Star and signalled her to follow him; Marco wanted to get out of school as fast as he could.

They walked as fast as they could to their lockers, and once Marco had put his books away they made a beeline to the front doors. Marco could feel his classmates whispering about him. He dared to look around him and was met by people turning their heads away quickly. A few people looked at him and nodded, as if they were sharing a secret. He caught the eye of a football player and got a stare that could melt ice. He turned his head and saw Alfonzo and Ferguson walking quickly towards him. He stopped and let them catch up.

"Dude that was awesome. What you did in the locker room, you saved our li'ves." Ferguson exclaimed excitedly.

"It was no big deal", Marco shrugged and chuckled uncomfortably. "I couldn't let my two best friends die."

"Haha, yeah thanks man. Well, we will see you later alright?", with that the two boys made their way past the crowd, heading towards their lockers. Marco looked at Star and together they joined the sea of students looking to get out. They made it out the front doors, buses lined up against the ramp ready to take the students home. Marco and Star headed to the right walking past the buses and headed for the sidewalk. Star noticed a pair to their right and immediately called them out.

"Hey Janna, hey Jackie." Marco looked over in interest, Jackie and Janna were making their way towards them.

"Hey Star, Marco" replied Janna, "Star I want to show you something." She grabbed the princess by the arm and dragged her out of earshot. Janna and Marco stood there awkwardly looking at each other. Marco gathered up his courage.

"I'm assuming you heard what happened?",he needed to let it out. Marco didn't know what Jackie would think about him getting into a fight; and he just couldn't not know.

She nodded back, "I heard that Travis attacked your friends, and so you fought him." That was exactly what happened, but Marco couldn't believe how simple it was. In his mind he expected Jackie to make a fuss about him getting into fights for no reason. But here she was making him out like some hero. He looked her in the eyes and smiled. She smiled back and then punched him in the arm.

"Just don't make a habit of it 'safe kid'." Marco normally hated being called the safe kid, but the way she said it made him think it wasn't such a bad name. It didn't help when she gave him a wink either. He chuckled, rubbing his arm. She packed a surprising punch considering how petite she was.

"Don't worry, I won't." He thought of something else to say, but his attention was drawn towards Star and Janna who were walking back now.

"You ready?" Janna asked Jackie. The latter nodded and waved goodbye to Marco, who returned it albeit with a little bit too much enthusiasm. He turned to Star.

"So what did Janna want to show you?"

"Oh nothing, just some stuff." She smiled innocently and started heading home. Satisfied with her answer, Marco followed her and together they walked home.

(Warning jumpcut *cough* can't write *cough* I know its lazy, but honestly I have so many ideas that I needs to gets them downs. Sorry had a bit too much to drank ;) )

A month flew by incredibly fast for Marco. After the first two weeks of not being able to do anything other than watch movies with Star, which wasn't really a punishment, things became relati'vely slow. People quickly got over the fact that Marco had beaten up one of the biggest kids in school, except the football team of course. There hadn't been any monster attacks either, not that Marco and Star were complaining. Everything had calmed down quite a bit. But things were starting to pick up again with the Echo Creek High Dance coming soon. The spirit team and the student government had spent weeks planning the biggest dance of the year. The two groups couldn't decide on a theme for the party so instead they went with a prom like set for the dance. The dance was being held in the gym, which was where Marco was now helping set up the decorations.

He climbed up the ladder with the banner in his left hand and a tie in his mouth. He was in the middle of tying the top edge of the banner to the grate when Star walked up.

"Hey Star. Thanks for uh agreeing to go to the dance with me. These things tend to make me nervous. "

She nodded in understanding, "What are you so worried about?"

"Well, I had a nightmare that I came to the dance alone, and everyone laughed and threw tomatoes at me! Then all my teeth fell out and then Jackie saw me and said I looked pasty."

"Yeesh that sounds rough. But don't worry It'll be fine." Marco yelped and fell off the ladder crushing Star beneath him.

"Ah my leg! I can't feel my leg." Marco screamed holding up a spiked boot.

"Marco! That's my leg."

"Oh sorry," he released Star's leg and they both got up. "What happened?" she asked him.

"I don't know I saw a giant rat up in the grate."

"Yeah this place is a dump." Star looked around the decrypt gym, her eyes focused on a girl in the back. "I'll be back", she ran off shouting "Janna Banana".

Marco turned his attention to the banner, seeing that it was straight he decided to leave it. He was about to move on to his next task when a certain blond walked up to him.

"Hey Marco", said Jackie as she picked up her skateboard. She was wearing her traditional attire, fit with her seashell necklace, helmet, and jean shorts.

"H-hey Jackie", despite the fact that they had started hanging out, Marco still stuttered when he talked to his crush. "Whats up?"

The skater rubbed her arm nervously and looked down. "I was wondering, uhm if you would like to go to the dance with me?" Marco stood there dumbstruck. This wasn't happening, this had to be a dream. The girl that he had a crush on for years was asking him to the dance. Respond or she will think you don't want to go with her, his mind shouted.

"Uhm, yeah totally, i would love to go to the dance with you. Yes." Shut up, shut up his mind shouted.

"Ok cool, see you later." she threw her skateboard to the ground and hopped on it, skating away from Marco. The boy just stood there dumbstruck. He couldn't believe it, the girl of his dreams had just asked him to the dance. He heard his name being called behind him, it was Star. He couldn't wait to tell her.

He turned with a large smile plastered on his face.

"Uh, are you okay?"

"Jackie just asked me to the dance, and I said yes.", he put his arms to the sky in victory. Then he remembered something.

"But wait, we were gonna go to the dance together." Marco expected Star to be a little upset but she was in fact the opposite.

"No no no, it's okay. I totally forgot that I promised Janna to do a dead clown seance."

"So it's okay?"

"Marco, dead clown seance?"

"Yes, yes." Marco shouted as he ran out of the gym to start getting ready for the dance, taking a second to spin their troll of a teacher around.

Back at home, Marco told his mom and dad about his change of plans, and started getting ready for the dance. He had laid out his suit and pants beforehand, making sure they laid flat so they didn't wrinkle. Marco spent quite a while in the shower, making sure every inch of his body was scrubbed clean. Once he was done he dried himself off and wrapped the towl around his body. The mirror was steamed from the hot shower so Marco used a hairdryer to clean it off.

Gathering his supplies he started his routine. He clicked the play button on the radio, starting the Dios De los Muertos tape that was in there. "Alright", he muttered to himself. He picked up his deodorant and flicked off the cap. "One wipe, two wipe, three wipe, four. Fi've wipe, six wipe, sweat no more."

He placed the deodorant down and picked up his cologne, Aroma de Hombre. He sprayed it on his wrist just to make sure.

Taking a deep whiff, "Oh yeah, that's the stuff." He sprayed a cloud in the air and walked towards it. He tripped over something, well more like someone. He stood up and pulled his towel closer to his chest.

"Janna! What are you doing here?" She and Star stood up and started taking things from the counter; including his radio and his hair dryer.

"Watch where you are going. We needed supplies for our clown seance."

"Ugh fine.", Marco looked at his backside, "Great now my ass smells like cologne."

"Nothing wrong with that." Janna slapped Marco's butt making him yelp. She then wafted the cologne towards her nose, "Smells nice."

Star smelled him too, "Yeah smells nice." All three heard the doorbell. Marco jumped a few feet into the air.

"Oh my God it's her, she's here. What do I do?, What he did was run into the shower, "Uh where is my room?"

Star pointed towards his room and Marco ran out of the bathroom. "Want to go see Jackie?", The princess asked Janna.

"Ok", Star ran down the stairs, falling at the last step, as Marco's mom said she would get the door. Angela opened the door and her and Star gasped. In front of them was Jackie, wearing a sea green gown that perfectly matched her eyes. Her hair was done in its traditional wavy way, and an extra touch of mascara helped bring out the green of her eyes.

"Hey Angie. Hey Star.", she took two graceful steps forward into the house, "Oh hey Janna."

The girl was busying herself with a flashlight, turning it on and off causing her pupils to dilate and contract. Jackie looked up at the stairwell where Marco was.

"Hey Jackie, you look amazing.", The boy gracefully walked down the steps not once taking his eyes off his date.

'He looks so handsome', Star couldn't help but think as he walked down. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a flash of green as Jackie walked forward towards her date.

"You look amazing," Marco said, "A plus."

Despite acting like a complete dork Jackie laughed, "You too." Star stood there looking at the pair. She couldn't help but imagine herself in Jackie's position. She already had a dress picked out and everything. She was going to wear a knee length red, backless dress. It had a golden waistband and swoops around the hem of it. She had matching gold shoes with red bows and one for her hair; which was going to have a cord braid around the top and the rest would have been loose. If she was honest with herself, Star would say that she was really looking forward to wearing it. But Marco wanted to go with Jackie, and she had a clown seance to do with Janna.

"Hey Star," Mr. Diaz whispered to her, "Would you mind taking a picture of this lovely couple?"

"Haha, yeah sure no problem." Star pulled out her phone and took a quick picture of them. Before she even put her phone down they were out the door, walking towards the dance. Star watched them leave before Mr.s Diaz called them to the car.

Janna and Star got dropped off at the cemetery, each carrying a box of supplies needed for the seance. As they reached the gates they heard a thumping behind them and turned to see Star's spell book flipping towards them. It stopped in front of them and opened up revealing a small blue man.

"Glossaryck, what are you doing here?"

"Uhm, dead clown seance? Ring any bells?" the girls just shrugged their shoulders and pushed open the gate. Janna fished through her duffle bag and pulled out a headlamp. Putting it on she pushed the light and the lamp clicked on. Glossaryck followed her example and touched his gem, causing the crystal to let out a purple light.

"Nice natural headlamp."

The blue man settled on the floating book, "It's not natural but thank you." The trio walked into the cemetery looking for the headstone of Bon Bon the clown. Star, not paying attention to where she was going, stumbled and tripped over something. Wincing in pain, she watched as Janna walked past her and pulled the leaves of the bush of it was a giant headstone. Carved into it was the face of a smiling clown, and underneath read 'BonBon I will come back'.

"Bon Bon", Star and Janna said in unison, "Will he come back, like his candles? Ooooooo." The girls giggled and started on their project. Janna was working on the summoning circle, a pentagram with a clown shape inside of it all made from tape. Star worked on the altar, hanging up wires with flowers, cans, and beer bottles that Janna had mysteriously found. It took a while, but eventually Janna had finished the circle. She stood up, admiring her work, before heading to over to Star.

"How's the altar coming?", she asked looking at the few pieces of wire Star had attached to the headstone. The blonde looked up with a blank expression, as if she was not completely there.

"Good good. Ok not at all. I'm sorry Janna, my mind is all loopy right now."

The raven haired girl nodded in understanding, "It's fine Star take your time."

"Cool, cool, cool. Uhm, while we are here can I ask you something?", Without waiting for an answer Star slid up next to Janna and pulled out her phone showing the picture that she had taken of Marco and Jackie. "Isn't it weird that Marco has like one mole and all the sudden Jackie has like eight of them? Also should I be worried that Marco was all too happy to dump me for her? I mean that's totally not cool."

Janna put her hands on Star's shoulders, "Look Star first of off those are freckles, second didn't you want to come to the seance rather than some lamo dance?"

Star looked down and nodded, "Well yeah..."

"Good then let's forget about this whole Marco thing and focus on the clown seance." She moved away from Star and started working on the altar. Star remained where she was looking at her phone, wishing that she was at the party.

Marco and Jackie walked together in silence. Marco was uptight, and stiff as a rod while Jackie was relaxed and cool as a cucumber (XD i'm tired shut up).

"So uh, Jackie," Marco started off, "I was wondering what are you hobbies?"

She took a second to think about it, "Oh, uh … Lots of stuff, I guess. Uh, there's skateboarding, which you know. I'm kinda into history books. I read this really cool one about-"

"Interesting, what kind of music do you like?", she was startled by his interruption.

"Uh, i guess pretty mellow stuff? I know that's totally vague-"

"Next question. Do you like foods? If so what kind?", Marco's hands were sweating slightly, so he wiped them on his cheek in hopes of looking casual.

"Wait, hold on y-you just wiped something on your face.", before Marco could react she grabbed his hand and turned it to where she could read the notes he had left himself. A list of conversation topics, in case there was an awkward silence. She smirked at him and dropped his hand.

"Dude you don't need this." she wiped his cheek and looked into his eyes, "Now come on." She walked towards the school leaving him to follow. They stopped at the entrance of the dance, if he was honest with himself he would admit that the decorations were shabby. The pair looked around, in the left side of the gym was a table where punch and wings were lined up. A small mousy girl, whose name Marco couldn't remember, was eating the wings. Ferguson was there with her they seemed to be focusing on their conversation. Marco's eyes continued to scan the room. Apparently someone had forgotten to cancel the basketball game, because two teams were gathered around one hoop, each trying to get a point. There was a couple on the dance floor waltzing, right as Marco glanced at them, they were broken up by Skullnick who pushed them aside while yelling, "Make room for lady decency".

The overall feel of the dance was dreary. Marco knew the spirit club was attempting to set a romantic mood, but with the poor lighting, sad and depressing song, and the fact that hardly anyone seemed to be enjoying themselves it failed.

Principal Skeeves walked up to them and offered them a basket of carnations. "Corsage?" Marco looked at Jackie who shook her head.

"Uh no thank you" The man looked politely at them.

"But it's mandatory" he said with a smile. Marco looked behind him, and saw a couple start fighting when the guy wasn't able to pin the corsage correctly to his date's dress. She yelled something at him and slapped him before walking away. Marco heard a sigh from Jackie.

"I knew this was a mistake. I should never have asked you to this dance." Marco felt his heart drop. Hundreds of insecurities came to the forefront of his mind. Why would she ever think of going out with a nerdy guy like him? She was right, this was a mistake. She was too good for him.

"I should have just asked you out on a date." she said, causing Marco's mind to come to a halt. He looked at her in surprise.

"Would you like to go a date with me?" She asked it so casually, focusing her sea green eyes on him.

"Y-yes, please.", was all he could force out. With Jackie leading they left the gym and started walking to the park. Along the way, Marco got the idea to show her his cooking skills, so he picked up some supplies at the gas station. Once they had gotten a bag full of candy, drinks, and such they headed to a bench and sat down.

"Alright now here some for you and here is some for me. And now we add one, just one, malted milk ball. Now we stir it. Stir, stir, stir, stir, stir. And now, we drink." Marco watched as Jackie downed his concoction and gag at its taste.

Coughing, "Oh Marco, it's terrible." The dying girl leaned back huffing, trying to recover from her near death experience.

"Weird, it tasted fine the last time I had it"He couldn't actually remember the last time he tried it. But he knew it was good when he did. He took a sip of it and immediately spat it back into the cup. It tasted like wet, moldy socks.

"Oh ugh." he moaned letting the brew dribble out of his mouth. She wasn't kidding when she said that it was terrible. He looked to his right to see Jackie snorting with laughter. She leaned forward and wiped off his chin.

"You're hilarious Marco. Why don't you try being like this more often? More relaxed."

"Relaxed? What do you mean I am relaxed." Marco leaned back, striking a pose. But there was no back rest so he ended up almost falling off the bench. He grabbed Jackie's ankle and pulled himself up, quickly let go, and folded his arms together. Jackie watched this all with amusement on her face. Marco laughed a bit, feeling his ears warm a bit.

"Come on Marco, relax. What are you so afraid of?", she sat up to look at him more closely.

He looked down, "Well, it's just you are this amazing person, and I really like you, and I really don't want to screw up with you." she snorted at his last statement causing him to pause. He was a bit irritated that she was laughing at him.

"Marco, you already screwed up." She saw his confused look, she explained. "You broke my skateboard, you sent me 'anonymous' cat pictures, you had that weird thing growing out of your nec…"

"Can we please not talk about that?" he interrupted, not wishing to reli've that memory. The Naysaya was a curse gi'ven to him by Star's demonic ex Tom. It had grown on his neck one day and shouted out all of Marco's inhibitions, right in front of Jackie. It was a complete nuisance, but it had helped Marco get over his fear of talking to her, almost.

"Fair enough, but do you know what I like about you. Even after all that humiliation, you still manage to stay on your feet. You just pick yourself back up and brush it off. A lot like skateboarding."

"Yeah well, i've never ridden a skateboard befor…"

"WHAT!" Jackie sprung up and lifted her dress up. Underneath was her skateboard. Marco looked at her in surprise, "Do… you always, have that with you?"

Without even answering she pinned the hem of the dress in on itself, freeing her legs up. Underneath she pulled out two helmets and gave one to marco. He hesitantly grabbed it, wondering at how and why she had her skating gear. Before he could voice his questions she grabbed his arm, and dragged him onto the skateboard. He wobbled nervously, but Jackie put her arms around his waist,

"Don't worry, just relax", she whispered sending a shi'ver up Marco's spine. He could feel her breasts against his back as she leaned closer to him, "I've got you, trust me." With that she pushed off the ground, causing Marco to wobble once more. As they gained more speed he was able to get his balance. Confident, he laughed and closed his eyes, enjoying the soft breeze on his face.

Everything was in place; the altar was made, the summoning circle was complete and topped with a special cake. The candles, much like the ones BonBon made, were lit and wavering in the soft wind. Star looked over their seance, they had finished about half an hour ago and had decided to wait for BonBon. She looked over to a grave that Janna had dug out, she was sleeping like a mummy. Glossaryck was much the same but instead of a grave he was sleeping inside Star's magic book. She couldn't sleep, he mind wouldn't let her.

She fished around in her pocket and pulled out her phone, it still showed the picture she had taken of Marco and his… date. She frowned, 'I shouldn't be mad at him. I wanted to go to this seance instead of the dance anyways.' She pressed down the speed dial and called him. It rang a few times and then went to voicemail.

"H-hey Marco, it's me Starrrr. Ya know, you're bestie. So uh, hope you're having a great time, call me." she abruptly hung up, but immediately dialed again. Still nothing, she didn't know why she bothered. He was on his date with Jackie. Star put her phone down and let out a deep sigh. There was nothing she could do, about the dead clown, about Marco. It wasn't as if she could just spy on him with magic. Wait.

Star bolted up and jogged to her magic spell book, how could she not think of the solution staring her in the face. She's a freaking magical princess, there had to be something she could use. She flipped through the thick pages until she found a sleeping blue man.

Prodding him gently, "Glossaryck, oh glossy. I need your help." The small blue man mumbled and opened his eyes just a bit.

"What Star? What is it?" He asked rubbing his large eyes.

"Is there a way to umm, do you like, i don't know, maybe know a spying spell?" She hoped he was too sleepy to fully understand what she was saying, she would prefer it if her mentor didn't think of her as a creep for spying on Marco. Without a word the blue man flipped with the pages of her book, stopping to show her a page describing the-

"All seeing eye?" With a shrug, Star knelt down in front of her book and started reading. With a hop, she got up and raised her wand. Following the movements, that were shown in the book, exactly, Star began her incantation. "I summon the All-Seeing Eye to tear a hole into the sky. Reveal to me that which is hidden. Unveil to me what is forbidden." As soon as she formed the last syllable a dark swirl of purple formed in front of her. At first it remained dark and swirling, but eventually the mass formed into an image, Marco. Star gasped and smiled in victory, not believieng that she had managed it on her first time. Her happiness was short li'ved as she saw what the spell was showing her.

It was Marco and Jackie, on a skateboard. And Jackie was holding him, holding Star's Marco. A rush of emotion came over the princess. Jealousy, rage, hatred. All of them flowed through her, and unconsciously she felt her power being fed to the wand. She watched as a wheel of the skateboard popped off, causing the pair to lose balance and fall. Their shouts, mixed with the sound of the impact, jerked Star out of her trance. The sudden distraction caused the spell to dissipate into purplish smoke. She looked at her wand in surprise. She couldn't have caused that could she?

She spun around and raised her wand as something crashed behind her. It turned out to be Janna, the girl's hair was lying flat to one side, a result from sleeping on the ground. She looked around, taking note of her surroundings that nothing had changed. Star panicked and ran towards her, holding her wand in front of her.

"Janna, I don't know what happened, I was just looking I swear, then all the sudden the wheel broke off, and I don't know how I did it but it wasn't on purpose I swear." Janna took a step back at the sudden outburst. She had no idea what was going on, or what Star was talking about for that matter. But before she could ask, her attention was captured by the tombstone, it was glowing with white light. Janna stepped forward looking at it.

"It's time." She whispered, Star looked to the tombstone. Fog curled around it, preventing her from seeing the ground. She felt something brush past her leg, but before she could react the light got brighter. A shadow emerged eliciting a gasp from both girls.

"Bon bon" Whispered Janna. Her face lit up with excitement, the long, boring night had payed off. But Star was not so excited, she noticed something off about the clown. He seemed too, short. The light shifted enough so that the two girls could see that it was not in fact Bon Bon, but-

"Ludo?"

"Hello princess." The small bird creature sneered. The fog around him cleared away revealing an army of rats, each looking rabid and ferocious. Not only that but at his side stood a spider and an eagle, each look directly at her. Without hesitation, Star raised up her wand, causing it to glow a dangerous pink. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted Janna, the girl was spinning a hairdryer around like some sort of yoyo (Miraculous simply the best).

Ludo sneered once again at her, and with a snap of his fingers his rats attacked.

"Are you okay?" Marco asked, giving his hand to Jackie. Somehow they both lost balance and crashed. Marco only had a few scrapes and bruises. Searching the blond he saw that she had come away unscathed.

"Yeah, haven't bit it like that in years. Are you okay?" She stood up, not seeming to notice his hand in hers.

"Yeah i'm fine." He smiled at his date. Looking down, he noticed her hand still in his. Immediately he began to blush, but looking up he saw that her cheeks were as red as his. Of its own volition, his body began to lean towards her. He didn't even have the capacity to think, all he felt was her lips on his. It wasn't like the books and movies made it out to be. It wasn't hot, it wasn't a kiss full of passion, it wasn't one where he melted into her. In fact, it was somewhat mundane. Opening his eyes, he pulled away from her. She still had hers closed, reveling in the feel of his lips.

Then everything went red. Marco looked up into the sky and saw a blood moon. He heard a rustling sound behind him and turned to see what had caused the he was no longer in the park with Jackie. He was standing alone in an empty field, gray wind swirled around him, preventing him from seeing more than a few feet in front of him.

"Soon." A deep voice said. Marco whirled around looking for the owner of the familiar voice.

"Who are you? What do you want with me?" Marco screamed. "Why is this happening to me?"

The voice cackled. A shadow appeared before Marco, a mass of blackness only offset by its cloak which swung behind him. "You play a very important role, Marco. You are they key to all of this." The figure reached behind his back and drew out something long. Marco took a step back, it looked like a weapon to him, but the figure just stuck the object in the ground and leaned against it.

"W-what do you mean?" Marco asked, taking a step towards the figure. He still couldn't see him, but something was oddly familiar about him. "What role? Key to what? Why won't you answer my questions?"

Once again the figure cackled, "Your questions will answer themselves in due time. I am here to warn you."

"Warn me? Of what?"

"You are in danger, Marco. You and Star, you both have many trials ahead and none of them are easy." The figure looked at something behind him. "It is time for me to go. You have been warned, Marco. Prepare yourself for war." With that the figure picked up his weapon and sheathed it. He started walking back into the wind.

"Wait. I still have questions. Who are you? What war? What is going on?" In answer the figure paused. His arms started glowing, a criss-cross pattern of blue across his arms.

"Star" That was the last word Marco heard from him.

"Marco? Are you okay?" The boy looked down to see Jackie standing in front of him, still in her prom dress. Marco silently pulled out his phone from his pocket. He had silenced it so that his date wasn't interrupted. The phone lit up revealing 64 missed calls from Star. He turned to his date.

"Star needs my help."

Star rolled to the side and fired off a blast of pink magic. Wave after wave of rats attacked her, not giving her time to think. She jumped over another horde, and then backflipped onto a headstone. A ring of rats were coming straight for her. The princess raised her wand into the sky and slammed it down on the headstone. A pink cloud, smelling oddly of sugar, crashed into the ring of vermin, throwing them away from her. With a moment of respite, Star looked to see Janna holding her own as well. That hair dryer was a pretty good weapon. Star shifted her focus on her main problem. The bird monster pointed his own wand at her and fired a blast of green energy. Star easily dodged it and fired off a few blasts of her own. One of them connected with his chest and he flew off of the headstone. His companions attacked at once, the eagle tried to claw at Star's hair while the spider tried to spray its web on her. She blasted the eagle out of the sky, and it landed on the spider squishing it. Star smiled to herself before dodging another one of Ludo's attacks.

What did this guy even want from her? And why was he wearing a clown costume?

"Get her!" Yelled the clowned monster. The Eagle and the spider got up once again.

Star smiled,"Like that's going to work on me. Mega Starfish Tsunami!" A giant wave rose up from behind the girl, carry sharp, pointed starfish. It rose ten feet into the air before crashing down on Ludo and his gang. Star could barely hear Ludo's voice over the sound of the wave, saying "That doesn't look good". Without waiting for him to recover, Star casted another spell.

"Mystic room suck transform" A swirling pink vortex appeared from her wand. It acted as a vacuum sucking everything up. First went the cake and candles that her and Janna set up for the seance, then a couple of rats. Most of them managed to escape but a few weren't so lucky. Ludo himself was barely holding onto the ground, his feet were lifted into the air and his beard was swirling about his face.

"N-no please. Please spare me. I would show you mercy." The little monster pleaded. Star was about to rebute that he would in fact, not spare her. But her attention was shifted to the entrance to the graveyard. Marco and Jackie rolled up on the skateboard, Marco took his helmet off and started jogging toward her seeing Ludo made him anxious. Instantly Star became enraged. Jackie was here, with Star's Marco. Like floodgates opening, Star felt a surge of power flow through her and into her wand. The pink vortex changed into an acid green, it shifted somehow. Star wasn't able to explain it, but she knew something was wrong and Marco could sense it too.

The vortex dropped Ludo, who immediately was picked up by his eagle and his spider. Marco watched as the spider shot a web at Star's magic book and carried it away. Marco chased after them, he knew how important Glossaryck was not only to Star but also to Marco. How else was he going to learn how to control his magic. He latched onto the book, gripping it by its cover and trying to stop Ludo.

"You might want to let go, you have more pressing matters to attend to." Ludo sneered past Marco, the boy looked back and saw Star holding onto a headstone for dear life. Immediately he let go of the book and ran towards her, his arms faintly glowing. He ran as fast as he could and just barely managed to grab hold of her hand. They latched onto each other, he was the only thing preventing the vortex from sucking her in. It bathed both of them in green light as it pulled at the girl's feet.

"Marco, let go. It's going to suck you in, let go."

"I'm not letting go Star. I-I can't lose you again." He looked her in the eyes, he could see the fear in them. He thought back to the moment in the forest, and to the moment in the cave. He hadn't thought back to how he used magic, he was still a little shaken up by the events with Star. But now he quickly thought back, how it felt to use magic, how he could feel it flow through him. He tried to recreate that feeling, searching for that warm glow. It came to him, it started in his abdomen and traveled to his arms. His tattoos glowed through his tuxedo and blue lines of energy emerged from his wrists. They wrapped themselves around Star and planted themselves in the ground behind and beneath him. He imagined them being pulled back to him and they followed his will, bringing Star closer to him. They binded them together and pulled them back, away from the portal.

The green vortex started collapsing on itself, releasing its pull on the teens. It winked out of existence. The stings, still pulling the pair, caused them to fall backwards with a thud before they too disappeared. Star layed on top of Marco gasping into his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, and rubbed her back gently.

"It's okay," he cooed, "we are safe now Star." They both got up, Star was still sobbing.

"It's not okay, we lost Glossaryck." Marco pulled her towards him, nuzzling her neck to comfort her. She hiccuped into his shoulder, trying to get her sobs under control. How could she let this happen? How could she let Glossaryck get taken?

"I know Star. We'll get him back. I promise." He continued to rub her back and buried his head in her shoulder. She sighed and nodded, knowing that he would keep his promise.

 **Dayum, that was a long ass chapter. Well yall deserve it after that long ass break I took XD. Sorry again about that. But I hope that y'all will keep reading this, no doubt some of yall have left my fat ass; not that I blame ya. But dang, S3 has started, lot of shit happened there. Man I cannot wait for Eclipsa, I knew she was gonna be a problem but now it's actually gonna happen. Also I love the posts about how this is a "kids show" but i mean, look at Toffees death, look at Star sacrificing herself. This ain't no butterfly happy shit no more. But i'm super excited about it.**

 **I will try to write as much as I can, i have free time now cause i'm taking a semester off, hoping to switch to a writing major. Yeah thats right, ya boi is gonna become a professional, not that i'm not already ;). I know I got a lot of stuff to work on. But hopefully the delays in chapters will not be this long. I have timers, I have people to remind me. But again i'm lazy af. But thank you guys so much for sticking with me, I know I waited way too long on this and kinda lost momentum, I was rereading the story and realizing how much stuff I have that I need to develop but I has the ideas flowing. Thank you guys seriously for sticking with me, as always feel free to dm me, I also have started streaming and have a dedicated discord server for that so if you want to come and chat with me ill send you the discord link. I love making new friends so dont be shy. Welp i've drone on long enough and half of you are already gone so thanks again for supporting me, I hope you enjoyed.**


	11. Chapter 10

***Hears your cries for me to stop writing canon.* What's this I hear? Canon is not fanfiction** **and you already know all of this? Well listen here young sunny Jim, that was all just buildup. Yessirie, now we are getting into the real story. Yeah sorry about that guys, I know i've been following canon so far, but I wanted to set everything up. Trust me I was going to go off tangent from canon after Bon Bon, since it was after that episode that I started writing. But now we get into the real fanfic WOOOOOOOOOO.**

 **So before we start sorry about the long delay, ive been going through some things and havent found the time or will to write recetnly, so hopefully this was worth the wait. A little more starco in here, also a great evil will apeare ooooooo. Hope you guys enjoy, thanks again for reading I will try my best to continue regular updates but idk what might happen. Hope you enjoy Chapter 10**

Chapter 10: Dreams

Janna had her mom pick her up, she took Jackie home after Marco said goodbye. Star used her scissors and cleaved a portal back home for her and Marco. Immediately as she stepped through, emerging into Marco's room, Star collapsed into a fit of sobs. Marco knelt down beside her and held her, rubbing her back, trying to soothe her.

"He's one, he's really gone. How could I lose him? How could I be so stupid?" she wailed into Marco's shoulder.

Hugging her tighter, "It's not your fault Star. Who could have known that Ludo would try to go for him? He's always gone after you and your wand." Although she nodded slightly, his words didn't suppress the guilt inside of her. "Star, we will get him back okay? All we need to do is find him and then we can rescue him okay?"

She lifted her head and looked into his chocolate eyes; there was so much confidence in them, she didn't know how he did it but she knew that he was right. They just needed to find him somehow. But first, there was something else she needed to do. "Thanks, Marco." She whispered, pulling him into another hug. He smiled, happy that she was calm. Marco knew that it wasn't going to be easy to rescue Glossaryck, he could be anywhere in the universe.

Star got up and started walking out of her room, Marco followed her.

"What are you doing?"

Without looking back, "I need to tell mom what happened. She will know what to do." Marco reached out and grabbed Star's hand.

"Wait!" Wouldn't it be more sensible to try to save Glossaryck first, rather than worry your mother?" Star frowned at him. Usually, it was Star who didn't want her mother knowing things and Marco saying that they should tell her. Was he okay? Before she could voice her concern, he continued.

"I mean we could always try first, and then if that doesn't work then ask her. She probably wouldn't let you go and rescue him." Star nodded, realizing that he had a point. The queen wouldn't let her only daughter go on a super dangerous rescue mission. She looked back at Marco,

"You're right, we will try to save Glossaryck first, and if that doesn't work then we can tell my mom. And if we do save him, then what she won't know won't hurt me." She gave a smile and a wink, Marco smiled back happy to see her back to normal. He felt a weight on his heart lift, he was worried about her. She had almost got sucked into that black void, and God knows what had happened to her if she did. Ludo seemed to survive it, but something about the one at the cemetery was different. It had seemed more dangerous, more… ravenous. As if it wasn't just a portal into another world, but instead a void into certain death. It had scared Marco more than he was willing to admit, Star had told him to let go but in the moment he knew that he would go with her before he let go. Even if it sent them to a hellscape, Marco would have jumped in after her.

"Welp time for bed." Star skipped off into her room, leaving Marco with his thoughts. She peeked out from the doorway, seeing him still standing there. "You okay?" she asked, he nodded.

"Yeah just thinking."

She giggled, "That's a dangerous pastime." Marco smiled back at her, Beauty and the Beast was her favorite Disney movie. (Yeah that's right, I like Disney too, tho I prefer Pixar. Anyways) She and Marco had watched it on one of their friendship Thursdays, and Star had immediately loved the idea of a woman falling in love with a monster. She went back to her room, leaving the door open. Maro could hear her rummaging through her drawers so he knew not to come any closer.

"What you thinking about?" She called.

"Nothing important. Just thinking about how things went today." He could hear the rummaging stop.

"Oh? Yeah, how did your date go?" She sounded odd as if she was forcing the words out.

"Uhm… it went okay not much happened. The dance was kinda lame so we bailed on that." He could hear her mumbles of acknowledgment. "And we kinda kissed.."

"WHAT?!" Marco jumped as Star slammed into the door jam looking right at him. She was fumbling with something behind her quickly, turned out to be her pajama pants as she walked fully out of her room. He could see her eyes sparkle as she bit her lip and looked at him expectantly.

"What?" He questioned.

"Well?" She squeaked, excitedly. Marco didn't understand what was going on. He started backing away from her as she was right on his face, he needed to change too.

"Well what?" he asked, going into his room. He half hoped that she would afford him the privacy he gave her, but that hope was dashed immediately as she followed him and sat on his bed. Pulling his pajamas out of his dresser; he opened his closet and started to strip, neatly folding and hanging his tuxedo up. He could hear her sigh behind the closet door.

"How was it, dummy?" He pulled his shirt over his head and pulled on his pajama pants. He and Star got matching Chat Noir and Miraculous Ladybug pants (next fanfic? ;:) ). Star wore the Chat Noir ones since she was most like the pun-spewing blonde. And he wore the Ladybug pants because Star stole the Chat Noir ones.

He stepped out of the closet, adjusting his shirt, "Well honestly…. It was okay." He looked over seeing Star somewhat deflate. "Okay?" She questioned cocking her head to the side.

"He walked out of the room and into the bathroom, she followed. "Yeah, I mean it was nice. Her lips were soft and warm and felt kinda nice. But I don't know. It didn't feel that special. It felt kinda…. Normal." He started brushing his teeth, looking at Star's reflection in the mirror. She seemed to be thinking about something, and was it his imagination or was she… smirking?

She looked up and gave him a half frown, leaning against the doorjamb. "Well, that sucks. Isn't a kiss supposed to be special? Like shouldn't you feel butterflies or something?" Marco shrugged and spit out the toothpaste.

"Well, did she like it?" She asked leading him back to his room. He halted a moment, remembering his vision. How was he even going to explain that one? He went and sat down on his bed,

"I don't know actually." She looked at him curiously, "Well like, I just felt like something was off for some reason, so I checked my phone and saw your missed calls. And I thought you were in trouble soooo I went to the cemetery." Star blushed at the mention of the missed calls. She may have been a bit overboard now that she thought about it. But that didn't matter now. Truth be told she was happy that Marco had been there. If he hadn't she would be… she didn't know what she'd be. That portal was only supposed to be a normal portal. But when it turned on her, Star could feel something sinister about it, as if it wanted to consume everything.

Marco yawned abruptly, causing Star to laugh. "I guess we should call it a night huh?" She got up and walked out of Marco's room. She peeked her head back out, "Hey, thank you for saving me, Marco. I don't know what would have happened if it wasn't for you."

The boy blushed a bit and nodded. Star left and Marco could hear her door close. He got up and went to close his own door, leaning against it once it was shut.

How was he going to explain his dreams? He was sure it was the same guy in both dreams; but the question was, who was he? Marco had the strangest feeling about him as if he should know the figure but he couldn't figure out why. Then there was the matter of Star. This was the second time she had almost died. Not to mention the fact that she did- NO! Stop, don't think about that. Marco shook his head, clearing his thoughts. She's safe, that's all that matters. Marco turned his light off before slipping under the covers. He fell asleep before his eyes were closed.

The smoke swirled around Marco, preventing him from seeing anything. The boy looked down, he was shirtless and wore only baggy, gray sweatpants. His tattoos glowed across his body, sending the fog into a blue light. Marco spun around, he was sure that he had heard something behind him. He spun again, this time for sure, there was a scuttling noise. Before he could react, something hit his side, staggering him. Then another hit from his other side. Marco put a hand to his side and felt blood. There were claw marks under the blood. Marco spun around, just in time to get clawed in the chest. He couldn't see it enough to get a good sense of what the creature actually was, it was too fast.

He heard it behind him and blindly lashed out with a backward kick. He felt the impact as he connected with what he assumed was the creature's chest. He spun, ready to defend himself but there was no need. The creature had run off.

A deep laugh came from behind him, causing Marco to spin once again, ready to fight. "What a pitiful display. Show me what you can really do." Why did the voice sound so familiar, Marco asked himself. He barely had time to spin once again before he got hit. This time, instead of running off, the attacker stayed there and faced Marco. It was a rock creature, every part of its body was made of stone. Its arms were cylinders with smaller ones at the end for hands and fingers, its legs were much the same except it stood on stumps instead of feet. Its chest and midsection were large blocks of rock, its head much the same except for two red dots for its eyes.

It swung one of its massive arms at Marco, who jumped back to avoid it. The golem's arm slammed into the ground with such force it caused Marco to stumble backward. 'A heavy attacker then.' He thought to himself, 'I can't block an attack head-on, I'll be crushed. Dodging it.' Marco sprung to the side as the golem slammed another massive fist into the ground, this time the shockwave didn't catch Marco off guard. As soon as the beast hit the ground, Marco sprung forward and threw his right fist into the golem's side, which ended up being a bad plan.

The boy sprung back, holding his throbbing hand. 'Stupid, the things made of fucking rock. What did you expect.' He chided himself. Marco didn't know what to do, he could only run from the monster, but from the look of it there was nowhere to run, and it wasn't like he could attack the golem, evidence of that was in his right hand. 'Think, think. The golem is slow, maybe I can use that somehow.' An idea came to his mind, 'It might work.'

The golem moved towards Marco, swinging one massive arm back. Marco readied himself, this was probably going to hurt, but what else could he do? The golem's arm came down, instead of dodging, Marco grabbed the golem's arm. Using its momentum, Marco flipped the beast onto its back. The resulting crash resonated in the black abyss as the monster crumbled to pieces. He smiled, he had killed it.

"Hahahaha" The voice echoed out again. It was like an itch he couldn't scratch, a memory at the forefront of his mind that wouldn't reveal itself. "You have the power boy, why don't you try and work your way out of this then?"

In an instant, dozens of the rock golems surrounded Marco. "Show me what you've got boy." The monsters advanced on Marco, each lumbering with enormous weight. "Shit" If there was any time to cuss that time was now. Marco was trapped, he couldn't possibly fight them all, hell he could barely kill one. Think, think, think. Marco felt a warm power deep in him, he knew what he had to do.

Marco raised his arms as he felt power coursing through him. His tattoos took on a blue glow as the air hummed and crackled. He fired off a bolt of lightning, it hit the golem right in front of him dead on. His triumph was short lived as the golem continued to advance unaffected. Of course, they were made of rock, lightning wouldn't do anything to them. Marco thought quickly, what could beat rock. His mind drew him a picture, well hopefully this works. He kept that image in his head, not knowing what else to do, as he channeled more power into his arms.

Green vines shot from his hands and made a beeline for one of the golems. They wrapped themselves around it immobilizing . Marco aimed and fired another shot at another golem, the same thing happened. One by one, Marco's vines wrapped themselves around the golems holding them in place and before too long they were all wrapped in thorny vines.

*Clap, clap, clap* " Very good my boy, very good." Marco turned to where the voice came from, he could feel the itch worsening his mind calling for the knowledge of where he knew the voice from. A tall silhouette appeared. There wasn't enough light for Marco to see it clearly, but he readied himself. There was no telling what the monster was going to do.

But the silhouette merely chuckled, "Get ready for your next opponent boy." Once more Marco spun ready to attack. But as he saw his opponent he paused.

"S-star?" His voice broke, "Wha- what are you doing here?" The usually joyful princess was anything but, instead of one of her bright, colorful dresses, she was in full body was wearing dark grey armor with a pink star around her heart, her boots traveled up to her mid-calf, and her leggings were made of chain mail. Spiked shoulder pads jutted out from underneath her collar, and she donned a spiked war helmet which covered everything but her eyes and mouth. Her wand was held tight in her right hand, she started walking towards him.

"You betrayed me, Marco. I trusted you, I gave you everything I had and you took it for granted."

"Star, wh-what are you talking about?" This wasn't right, Star seemed different, more… aggressive. This definitely wasn't the sweet and kind-hearted princess he was used to. Even when they were fighting monsters she would smile and laugh like she was having fun. But now, there was no happiness in those blue eyes, only rage.

"I'm sorry Marco." Her wand took on a reddish glow and it transformed. Instead of a wand, it was a blade of red energy. Star gripped the sword with both hands and sprang at Marco, slashing as she went. If he hadn't dodged he would have been cut in half.

"S-Star, stop it. This isn't you." He cried springing away from another attack.

"ENOUGH! You abandoned me when I needed you most. You betrayed me, you left me for dead. And I will do the same to YOU!" She leaped at Marco again, this time her blade made contact with his right shoulder slicing it open before Marco rolled away. He looked at his arm, it was hanging limp, it wasn't even bleeding probably cauterized from the energy blade. He looked back at the princess who seemed hungry for more violence.

"Star please, I'm not going to fight you. You're my friend, please we can talk this out." He pleaded, he started walking towards her arm out in surrender. She looked at him curiously lowering her sword just a bit. "Please Star, I'm your friend, remember all of the adventures we had, all of the good times. You saved my life many times. Remember when we fought that monster just for a sandwich? When we waited for hours in line for those Monsterdogs. Please star remember that I am your friend." He was only a few feet away from her, her sword was pointed directly at his heart, ready to pierce it.

"Please Star, please forgive me." Her face went blank as she recalled their adventures, Marco hoped beyond hope that whatever he did to her wasn't enough to ruin their friendship. She looked him right in the eyes and Marco felt hope. Maybe she wasn't going to kill him. That hope was short lived as she swung her blade upwards trying to cut him vertically. Marco's arms moved of their own accord, his right arm seething in pain, and formed an X. Star's blade stopped inches from Marco's body, as it did a light blue, almost translucent, bubble appeared in front of him, sort of like a shield encasing the front of his body. Both teens were surprised at the appearance of the barrier, but the princess quickly recovered and pressed the attack, each stopping just inches from Marco's body. With another powerful hit, a crack appeared in the shield. This encouraged the girl who began hitting harder and faster.

'I can't hold this for much longer, I need to do something, but I can't hurt her.' Marco thought to himself. Another hit and the barrier was broken, the force of the excess magic releasing caused Marco to fly backward, landing on his feet he quickly readied for another attack. 'I have to do something'

Star came flying at him sword high in the air as she readied for an overhead swing. Marco felt something in him change, 'Why should I just sit here as she attacks me. If she wants a fight, then she will get a fight.' Marco thrust his left arm out, tattoos glowing sapphire, and aimed directly at the princess's chest. A direct hit to the crystal on her chest caused her to drop from the air. The princess crumpled to the ground, her sword returned to its original wand shape. Marco walked over to her hand still raised and ready to fire. The princess rolled over onto her back breathing heavily. In the middle of her chest was a small burn hole, right where Marco hit her.

"Go ahead." She gasped out, the wound must have hurt a lot he thought. "Please Marco, just finish me off already." Marco stopped short, she was crying why was she crying? Before Marco could respond the smooth voice rang out, this time closer than it was before.

"She will only cause you pain. She is jealous of you Marco, jealous of your power, she was willing to kill you, in order to be the most powerful." The voice was making sense, Star had been trying to kill him, but why? Why would his best friend do this?

He looked down at Star, his best friend, the girl who had taken him out of his shell. Because of her, Marco was no longer the safe kid. Because of her, he had gotten the courage to ask Jackie out. Could he really kill her? It would be easy, to just put a little magic into it and end her life, but did she deserve that? Could he actually do it?

"Marco please." He snapped out of his thoughts and looked down at Star. She was sitting up now, holding his wrist so that his palm was on her forehead. "Please Marco put me out of my misery." Marco could feel the energy rise within him, his tattoos glowed with a soft blue light as if they weren't really a part of what he was about to do.

"Do it?" Said the darkness. Marco's thoughts swirled, both voices calling for him to do it. Saying that it was very little effort, that he should just do it and be done with it. He couldn't think straight. He didn't know what to do. He couldn't decide whether it was right or wrong, he just kept feeling the power growing inside of him, asking, begging to be released, all he had to do was let it out, all he had to do was release the energy. He pressed his palm to her head, his eyes shut tight, he couldn't watch, he just couldn't look at her face.

"Marco. Marco." He heard Star cry out. 'I know I know, please just give me a second to think, he screamed silently, wishing just for silence. "Marco wake up. MARCO!"

Marco snapped awake gasping. His heart felt as if it was going to break out of his chest and run away. His whole body was shaking, his breathing was erratic, it felt like he was breaking down.

"Marco?" The soft voice caused him to jump again resulting in Star jumping as well. "Hey, are you okay? You're shaking and sweating really badly." She said concerned. Marco felt the back of his neck, he was sweating so much that the front of his shirt was soaked. Marco began to regain his composure, he took a few deep breaths trying to calm his body down.

"S-star, could you grab me a glass of water please?" With a look of concern she walked out of the room, Marco could hear her running downstairs. He took the time to get out of bed, he wobbled over to his dresser and put on a fresh shirt.

'What was that dream?' He thought to himself, he remembered most of it; the golem fighting, the fight with star, the magic. He felt like he was forgetting something important, but he didn't know what. But his mind kept replaying the last scene over and over. He had, almost killed Star. The thought made him freeze, why would he do that? Granted she was trying to kill him but still. He would never hurt Star, he couldn't she was his best friend, the one person he could count on most.

"Hey, are you okay?" Star's sudden appearance scared Marco, he looked at her and smiled, "Yeah just a… just a nightmare."

She handed him the glass and sat on the edge of his bed, "Yeah you were screaming in your sleep. I thought a monster was attacking you." Now that she mentioned it, Marco noticed her wand on his nightstand, the wand that had tried to kill him. He shook his head, it was just a dream nothing more. But it had felt so real, Marco rubbed his shoulder right where she cut him.

"Marco, are you okay?" She asked, worry filling her voice. Marco looked at her 'it was only a dream'.

"Yeah, i'm okay, just a little shaken up." He set the glass down on the nightstand next to her wand.

The sight of it sent shivers down his spine, 'It was just a dream, nothing more.' Star shifter closer to him, taking his hand in hers.

"Are you sure you are okay Marco? I know dreams can be scary sometimes."

He looked down at her hand, despite the events of his dream he felt better knowing that she was there. He always felt better with Star around. "Yeah, I'm fine now." He smiled up at her, and she smiled back.

"You know, my great-great-grandmother shy used to believe that dreams were glimpses at the future. Of course, she once dreamed that a giant boot was going to eat her, don't know what kind of glimpse into the future that was." Star started giggling at the thought of her great-great-grandmother being eaten by a boot. Marco couldn't bring himself to laugh with her, a sense of foreboding washed over him. No, his dreams can't be true, they couldn't. Star would never hurt him and that voice, God why couldn't he remember where he heard that voice. The itching sensation came back into his mind but was quickly interrupted by a certain girl.

"Marco?" He turned his head to see her looking at him with concern.

"Huh? Sorry I was, was blanking out." He said stifling a yawn. She suppressed a smile, maybe it was time they went to bed, but….

"Hey, Marco? Can I ask you something." Curious he nodded.

"I was uh, was actually awake before you started yelling. I uh, I'm worried, Marco."

"About Glossaryck?" She nodded.

"What is going to happen to him? I mean, what does Ludo want with him, is he going to torture him, what if-"

"Star, calm down, take a deep breath." Without realizing it, Star had started hyperventilating and shaking. Marco put an arm around her and started rubbing her shoulder.

"It's going to be okay Star. Nothing is going to happen to him okay? We are going to find him, and we are going to rescue him. I promise." Star knew that Marco would never break a promise to her. She leaned her head on his shoulder as he hugged her, just being near him made all of her fears melt away.

"C-could I sleep with you tonight? I don't want to be alone tonight, I just… I would feel better if uhm." The princess looked down, blushing. Maybe she shouldn't have said anything, maybe she was making Marco uncomfortable, she should just leave. As she was about to get up and leave,

"I-i would like that too." She looked up in surprise to see him staring at his hands placed firmly in his lap. "I-I think I would feel better too." His face was a dark crimson, "I would feel better knowing that you were right there next to me." Face still red he looked up at her smiling which in turn caused her face to flush.

"O-okay." She stammered, she didn't actually expect Marco to agree to sleep next to her. Secretly she was afraid to, not like Marco would do anything to her, but it was weird sleeping with someone. Marco moved to turn the lamp off and climbed into bed first, holding the blanket up so that she could slip under it. Once they were settled, Star turned so that her back was facing him, in order to avoid the awkwardness of their faces being so close together. She felt him shift, probably to turn away fro-

His arms slipped under her and around her side, just above her navel. She felt his body push against hers, his chest aligned with hers, his legs moving to touch hers, and his head resting behind hers; his breath tickling her hair.

"Thank you, Star for being there for me, for protecting me and taking me on all of these adventures." She couldn't respond, his breath in her ear gave her chills and stirred something up inside of her. She could feel her face get hot as she felt his strong body cradling her, holding her, almost… claiming her. He snuggled closer to her and almost immediately started snoring.

'He must have been exhausted' She thought. She tried not to focus on the fact that she was sleeping with her best friend in his bed, or that her heart was pounding like a drum, or that there was a weird tingly feeling inside of her stomach. She tried to ignore all of that and sink into the slumber she so desperately needed. But all of that sank away as Marco shifted again, his head resting at the base of her neck, his legs wrapping around hers, and his arms hugging her tighter. It was… comforting. All of Star's fears began to melt away. Glossaryck, Ludo, the spellbook; they all evaporated from her mind as she reveled in the warmth that was Marco. His cologne was all over the place, on the pillow, in the blanket, on him. She could smell it everywhere, she loved that smell, it was Marco smell. Also the fact that he felt safer with her, she kept replaying their conversation in her head, smiling at the very thought that Marco didn't hesitate in sleeping with her. She snuggled deeper into Marco, pulling the covers over her body. Absorbing the heat from the boy she drifted off into slumber without a care on her mind.

 **Man has it really only been 10 chapters? I can't even remember half of my story XD. But hey 88 pages isn't bad, if I were to take my time and actually edit this I think it would be even longer XD. I srsly do need to start editing tho, but its so boring and takes forever ugh.**

 **Hope you guys enjoyed it, i had a few problems with the wording on certain areas so I hope that it isn't too noticable. So I have news for you guys. So last chapter was the final piece thats based off of canon. This was still intro, now we get into some real shit, this is where my world comes in ;). So I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I will enjoy writing about it.**

 **Another thing, for those of you who are like me, and love Miraculous Ladybug (S2 comin soon) I will soon be writing a fanfic for that. I got an idea while watching an anime, and I think it will transfer over very well. The problem is it's very music based, and a lot of the characters have special songs. So I have to write some music now *sigh*. But I think it will be worth it. Welp im done taking up your time, hopefully ill be able to get this next chapter out soon, but again thank you guys for readin ill see yall in Chapter 11: Rumplestiltskin.**


	12. Update

Hey guys just wanted to post this quick little update to catch yall up to speed.

So I am still writing the chapter, didn't want yall to think I'm taking another break, and it is going very slowly. I have about half of it done right now, but the problem with that is that this chapter is going to be pretty big. I am introducing a lot of new characters, explaining some stuff about the world, and of course setting up the plot. I am still figuring so much of the story out as well. I ended up writing about five pages worth of material and then deleting the entire thing because I thought of something else that I wanted to do, so right now the story is kinda up in the air. XD.

But hopefully, I will be able to get done soon and send in the updates. Hopefully, you guys will like where the story is going, I know I do ;), and again sorry for how long it's taking, I've been having trouble writing and getting the motivation to write so maybe that will come back soon. Anyways imma leave yall with that, thank you again for all of yalls feedback its really helped me and I will try to get the chapter out as soon as possible.

-KB


	13. Chapter 11

**Okay so there was a little change regarding the chapter name. Last chapter I said that this would be called Rumplestilskin. I was wrong XD my bad. So ignore that part completely. Once again I apologize for the lack of updating, I intended to make this chapter super long but instead decided to make it a two parter. I have so many ideas going on for this story that It is going to become a book ';-; Anyways thank you to those who have been following this story either from the beginning or even if it was last week. You guys cannot fathom how much your support keeps me going. I recently took a look at the calender, and it is almost been a year since I had started this story, A freakin year? Damn it has been a while. Anyways, I am going to be introducing some OC's to the story so I hope you enjoy them. Thank you guys again for supporting me through this story, I love you guys so much. Without much delay, here is Chapter 11.1: Akari.**

 **Chapter 11.1: Akari**

"Star you have to do it, we don't have any other option."

"I know that Marco, it's just that… i'm scared. What is she going to say when I told her that I lost the family book of spells, and Glossaryck? What if she blows up and yells. Oh God, she's going to be so mad, i'm going to have to leave Earth, I'm going to be grounded for like, eternity, what if-"

Marco grabbed Stars face with both hands, forcing her to look at him. "It's going to be alright Star. We don't know how she will react until we tell her okay? Besides, we are kinda out of options." He had a point, Star realized, they didn't have any other options other than to tell her mother. Their mission to rescue Glossaryck was a failure. At first they tried searching around for him, hoping across different dimensions in the hopes that someone had seen or heard of his whereabouts. When that yielded no results, Star tried using her scrying spell to find him, which had worked. But when Star had tried to get Glossaryck to come with her through the portal he refused.

A spark of anger crossed her mind; here she was trying to rescue the little blue man and he had the nerve to refuse her, saying that she was no longer the owner of the spellbook. The anger melted away, replaced by pain. She had done everything she could, she had protected the spellbook from Ludo so many times. She had just one slip up, one mistake, and Glossaryck was punishing her for it, saying that he didn't want to be rescued by her.

"Star?" She jerked her head up as she felt his thumb rub across her cheeks, wiping her tears away. "It's going to be okay Star, I promise."

She smiled, there he was making promises again, ones she knew he would keep. She wiped the rest of her tears away and nodded. Building up her courage she walked over to her mirror.

"Mirror, mirror on the wall, call mom."

' _Calling Mom_ ' the mirror changed showing Star's contact list and selecting her mother. Star fidgeted, smoothing her dress over and over while she waited for the call to connect. Marco stood next to her, rubbing her arm in hopes of easing her mind. Once the call had connected the screen lit up, showing her mother in her standard royal attire: a light blue dress poofing out at the hips, with dark blue gloves and shoulder wings, and a pair of thin spectacles on the tip of her nose. She seemed to be sitting at her office desk, looking over some official papers.

"Oh hello Star, darling, how have you been?"

"F-fine, h-how are you?" Star stuttered out. The queen seemed to notice that something was amiss, Star was usually more upbeat and hyper. Setting the papers down and taking off her spectacles, she looked up at the mirror.

"Star, what is it? What's wrong." The question was neither confrontational but nor was it soothing. It was more like controlled panic, as if she could sense the problem from across dimensions.

Immediately Star lost her composure and started sobbing, blurting out the recent events incoherently. Marco held her tight as she spoke, trying to stop her from shaking. Moon sat there open mouthed as she deciphered what Star was talking about. Once Star had finished her story, and had managed to stop crying, she waited for her mother's response.

The queen sat there in silence for a full minute, barely moving. Marco thought that she was frozen, kind of like a video that was buffering. He could practically see the circle rotating as Moon absorbed what had happened. Without a word to either of them, Moon stood up and walked out of the screens view. Marco heard the sound of a door slamming off screen.

A purple tear appeared in the air, it opened up to reveal a portal through which came the king and queen of Mewni. River, dressed in his own royal attire, looked confused as to why he and his wife were visiting his daughter. Moon looked stone faced as she took note of Star's room.

Star looked like a frightened little girl, as if she had heard a sound in the night. Moon walked up to Star; who snapped to attention, back ramrod straight ready for any lashing her mother had to give her. However, instead of scolding her, Moon simply stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Star.

"I am so sorry, you had to go through that Star. We will get him back, I promise." The queen repeating the same promise that Marco gave her broke Star. All of her emotions washed over her like a tidal wave, and threatened to send Star over the edge. Relief, disbelief, fear, happiness, all jumbled up inside of her coming out in a cry, a single cry that voiced everything. River moved to hold the girl as well, hoping to be of some help despite the fact that he didn't understand a lick of what was happening. He motioned to Marco, who awkwardly wrapped his arms around Star as well. They stood like this until the girl had cried her heart out, hiccuping as she wiped the tears away.

"Now" Said Moon backing away from star and smoothing her dress, "We have preparations to make. Star I want you to get all of your belongings together. For the time being, you will have to come back to Mewni. "

The teen's hearts dropped in unison. Star opened her mouth to protest, but was immediately cut off with a stern look.

"Star, I don't know if you understand how dangerous Ludo might be. Who knows what he will do with that spellbook; there are dangerous, dangerous secrets in that book Star. Ones that even I was not allowed to view. We must prepare for anything. Luckily I don't think Ludo is as devious as I fear. If it were anyone else, I would be more worried. But nevertheless we need to keep you safe."

"Shes right Star, it's dangerous here. He could be planning anything, he even might try to kidnap you." The girl looked at Marco in surprise. He was the last person she expected to agree with her mother. He must have sensed what she was thinking for he continued, "I- I don't want you to leave, but you would be safer at home." He looked down saddened, as much as he wanted Star to stay with him, he knew that Moon was right. Even though Ludo wasn't the smartest monster, far from it in fact, he could be planning something.

"One more thing Marco, I want you to come with us. Before he was… captured, Glossaryck told us of your…em... magical capabilities." Marco was surprised, he didn't think that Glossaryck would say anything to the queen, not that it was a secret, just that the little blue man wasn't one to go spreading information around. "But since you are Stars guardian, we would like you to come with us, back to Mewni. We would like to train you in how to use magic, similar to what Star was learning. If you wish to remain he-"

"I'll go" He answered without hesitation. River chuckled and muttered something along the lines of "Atta boy" Moon gave a small smile, she was hoping that he would stay by Star's side. If things get as bad as Moon thought they would, then Star was going to need all the support she could get. She looked over to see Star looking at him, a grin plastered on her face. 'For how long would that smile last?' Moon wondered.

The king and queen had returned to Mewni after explaining the situation to Mr. and Mrs Diaz. While they did not enjoy the idea of Marco leaving Earth, missing school, and not being home, Moon had explained the situation to the Diazs. They barely understood what kind of trouble the Butterfly's were speaking of, but they understood that Marco was in danger and that a heavily guarded castle would probably be safer than their house.

Within the week, Star and Marco were packed and ready to go to Mewni. Star took almost all of her belongings, leaving behind a few weapons and magical artifacts her mother and father didn't need to know about. Meanwhile Marco took only a suitcase of clothes, some comic books, and his phone. Marco doubted he would get cell reception in another dimension, but queen Moon had given the Diazs' a mirror of their own in case they wished to talk to Marco. His parents had taken him aside one day and had told him how they were a bit anxious about him being so far from home. The dimension hopping with Star was one thing, he always came back from that, relatively, unharmed. But this was another thing the Diazs' didn't know what would happen to Marco. They trusted the pair to be kept safe by the Butterfly's but the matter of the fact was that he was going to be living on another dimension for who knows how long. And while they were excited about the prospect of Marco meeting new people and experiencing new things, they were afraid that something would happen to him.

The four of them stood around Star's room waiting for the queen and king. Mrs. Diaz was fussing over Marco's hair, which was doing its best not cooperating, while Mr. Diaz looked around the room, taking in the empty walls of Star's room. The four sat there in silence, each inside their own thoughts. Soon enough a tear appeared in the air becoming larger until it could fit a large human. Moon and River walked through it each in casual clothing. River wore a plain white cotton shirt with blue shorts, Marco couldn't tell what kind of material it was made from. Probably some alien breed or something. He turned his head to Moon, who wore a light blue shirt tucked into a matching pair of dark blue leggings. Her hair, which was usually put up into a heart shape, was loose and shimmered all the way down to her legs.

"Sorry for the delay, we were finishing up some preparations for Marco's arrival." River's gruff voice startled the original occupants in the room. Mr. Diaz got up and went over to River, extending his hand.

"Thank you for taking Marco in. While it is no secret me and my wife would much rather have him here, we both know that you will protect him." River looked up at the man, he knew exactly how he felt. While he had been the one to suggest that they send Star to another dimension, he hated the idea of his daughter being with people that he didn't know, in a foreign place.

"After what you have done for Star, this is the least we can do. We will protect him with the might of the entire kingdom!" Marco and Star laughed as River got carried away swinging an imaginary sword. Moon put her hand on his shoulder, calming him down. "Ah yes, but do not worry. We will protect Marco no matter what."

They began saying their goodbyes. As excited as he was to live on Mewni, Marco knew that he was going to miss them. This was his first time really being away from his parents, and the thought scared him almost as much as the thought of Ludo and Magic does. But he also knew that his being there would put them in danger. Since Ludo knew where Star was being housed, that made his house a target. He couldn't put them at risk like that, leaving with Star would make it so Ludo wouldn't attack them on Earth.

With a wave, Star went through the portal first, then Moon and River. Marco looked back at his parents, "Love you guys."

"We love you too sweetie. Be safe okay?" Replied Mrs. Diaz holding back tears. Mr. Diaz, who was already blubbering, nodded at Marco who gave them another smile and walked through the purple tear.

"General Akari? General Akari. Are you with us?" The gruff voice snapped Akari out of his reverie. He couldn't help himself but daydream at these clan conferences. For three days, the leaders of dozens of monster clans would discuss trivial things, land ownership, trading contracts, hunting/foraging claims. They gathered once every three months in order to do this, it gave Akari a headache going to these meetings.

The dark green Septarian looked around the round room made out of stone. It had very barren save for a few white banners with the old war symbols on them. Cut into the stone were windows all around letting light into the room. A round table was the centerpiece, big enough to sit 30. Carved into the table itself was the divine emblem, a sun and a star encased by a crescent moon. The myths surrounding that symbol were great in number. Many believed that the Universe was the creator of everything, that everything: the stars, the dimensions, magic it had all been created by it. Some thought the Universe to be like an absent parent, creating everything and then leaving them to their own devices. But others believed that it was forever there, slowly guiding those along their path. And while Akari didn't put too much thought into superstition, he still participated in the prayers. Realizing that he had once again gone off tangent in his thoughts, Akari refocused his attention from the meeting and looked around the table.

Currently there were about a dozen and a half clan leaders around the round were the ones who had bothered to show up, about the same number had either decided that it was a waste of their time, or had other things to worry about. Some of the clans were in such a state of decay that their leaders couldn't afford to leave.

"Akari, are you even listening?" Once again, he was shaken from his thoughts. The Septarian turned his head to the right, four seats from him sat Graylon the leader of the Cynocephalus clan. He racked his memory of the Cynocephalus, their physical appearance was that of a Mewman below the neck that is. Above the neck they were that of wolves. There were legends that the Cyno were able to track enemies for days just by memorizing the scent of their blood.

A chuckle sounded from his left, a Sobek. The crocodile like monsters were close cousins to the Septerians. However, Akari despised them for their weakness, while they had amazing strength and speed, they didn't have the Septarians regeneration and longevity; theirs was a dying race.

"It seems that the General has dozed off." The Sobek's ragged voice grinded against Akari's ears, how he hated everything about these foul creatures. He did have a point however, Akari was dangerously close to drifting off. It had been a rough week for him, not only was he trying to keep his clan from falling under but his scouts had come back empty handed from their hunt. The Immortal one had given him specific instructions on what Akari was to do once he was gone, and so far Akari had not been able to follow orders. It pained him being unable to satisfy the Immortal one's wishes for he had done so much for Akari.

"There he goes again." Grumbled the Sobek. Akari glared at him.

"Yes I apologize, I will admit that I was in somewhat of a haze. But please do not let me interrupt your riveting account of your clan. Please go on." He said sarcastically. More than a few of the clan leaders thought it was best to move on before a fight broke out, and nodded in agreement. The Sobek however had other plans.

"Oh I am terribly sorry Akari, but are we boring you with our politics? Would you like a pillow and a blanket to nap on while the grown ups talk?" The Sobek gurgled out a laugh, looking around the table for approval but there was none to be found except from the Cyno and a few others. Instead all eyes were fearfully turned towards Akari, they knew of the general's fighting ability though none had actually seen it first hand.

Akari sat there fingers clenching and unclenching, attempting to control himself. It would not do Akari good to rip this scaly's throat out. As much as he wished to see the Sobek's blood spewing from his body, Akari had to contain his anger, for now.

"Funny, but that won't be necessary." Akari forced out, "Let us continue where we left off." He stared at each figurehead in turn, making it clear that they should move on. But the Sobek did not seem to get the message.

"What? Now you are interested in politics? What is this, the great General Akari, usually bored by our meetings wishes to continue it?" He laughed again ignoring the glances of warning that the others were sending to him.

"Would you please silence yourself." A strong melodic voice interjected, "Your very voice grates upon my ears and is giving me a migraine." The harpy brought a feathered wing to her temple to illustrate her point. Nami was the leader of the Harpy clan. The harpy's were a powerful Matriarchal clan, the so called rulers of the sky, had the legs and wings of a hawk, the wings replacing the arms. Nami herself was a rare gorgeous shade of white with her wing and tail tips ending in black. Her hair, also white, was short and spiky making it look like it was combed back, and ran down the back of her neck and spine, merging with her tail. With feathers covering her midsection and breasts, the rest of her was soft pale skin with red markings around her shoulders, neck, and ribs.

She was absolutely stunning to those who didn't know her capabilities. Flashing her paleness to attract potential mates and prey. Those who were the latter easily fell into her sharp talons without even a chance to cry out. Akari mused that at least her prey saw beauty before they perished.

The Sobek's maw snapped shut, as much as he loved testing Akari he was afraid of Nami, which was right of him.

"Now back to business," Nami turned towards Akari, whom could smell pheromones emanating from the harpy. Nami's specific breed had the ability to alter their scent for whatever purpose they had. It usually helped the harpy's attract their prey, right now Nami was releasing an odor that calmed Akari's blood.

"Akari, I believe it is your turn. How is your clan doing?" Akari looked back at her and nodded in thanks, Nami knew just how bad his temper could get and was grateful that she interceded.

"My clan does well. Our people are well fed, our warriors are strong, all in all we are doing well for ourselves." More than a few of the leaders shot him jealous looks. Akari's clan were doing well for themselves, they had so far been able to sustain themselves with the lands they've gotten. That which they could not farm or hunt, they traded for. Not many clan's did as well as Akari's, but he couldn't take the credit for all of it the Immortal one had certainly saved his people and all that was asked in return was his service.

The meeting kept going on as Nami went next to describe how well the harpies were doing. Then a Akari did his best to pay attention as the rest of the clan members droned on about their clan's progress, but no matter how hard he tried his mind kept going to his to do list. My how he wished that something would happen to let him out of this meeting.

As if the universe itself heard his prayer one of Akari's guards walked into the room. "My lords and ladies, apologies for the interruption." Everyone turned and looked at the Septarian body guard wearing Akari's clan sigil on his chest. Some, such as the Sobek, chuckled at Akari's break in protocol; usually the three day meeting went uninterrupted and a serious breach in protocol was somewhat of an embarrassing manner, to Akari though it was a blessing.

"General Akari, Lidack has returned and he says he has urgent news for you. He insisted that I come get you immediately." Akari turned his emerald eyes to Nami, who nodded to him in understanding.

"Akari, might I remind you that we are in a very important meeting and that this interruption gives us right to remove you fro-"

The leader who had spoken out was silenced as Akari flashed across the table and held his claws to the monster's throat. It took those around them to realize that Akari was no longer in his chair. Nami smirked, 'my how foolish many they are', she thought to herself. Many had heard of Akari's feats on the battlefield, but very few knew about Akari himself. That's what she found so interesting about him. These imbeciles were so ready to give themselves over to her, just a hint of lust with some attraction and her pheromones did all of the interrogation for her. Akari however, seemed to be immune to her skills. It wasn't a septarian thing, she knew that for she had wooed many of their kind. So what was it? She was broken out of her musings as a few of the other clan leaders started to rise, ready to call on their guards. But one glance and they all sat back down, the intruder stood there at attention, waiting for his general to command him.

"If you wish to do so, then remove me from this meeting. I have other matters to attend to anyways." With that he removed his hand from the monster's throat and made towards the entrance. The guard who had summoned him snapped to attention and made to follow him. As he passed by Nami broke the tension a bit, "Perhaps we shall take a small break for Akari to get his affairs in order. Personally I am parched and would love a glass of wine." The rest of the clan leaders hastily nodded, partially due to her aroma and partially because of their wish to escape the room.

Akari stood there as the leaders headed out through the wooden door. More than a few glances came his way, some friendly others not so much. The Sobek and the monster whom Akari had threatened walked out together, heads close together as they spoke. A three clawed hand rested on his shoulder.

"Akari dear you really should stop antagonizing the other kids, it's no wonder why they bully you." Nami stepped around and faced him smirking at her own joke. Akari growled in response.

"You know very well that I do not care for these worthless meetings. I would much rather be-"

"Out in the battle field letting your blade do the talking. Yes, yes, I know." She knew plenty of Akari's love for the battlefield. One couldn't call him a mindless warrior though. From just a few of their meetings, Nami could tell that he was quite the strategist. He seemed to get high off of it, predicting an opponent's moves and countering, seeing his plan succeed with very little odds. This was just one of the reasons why Nami had befriended him, that and he wasn't unattractive.

The pair followed the guard out of the circular room into a hallway made out of more stone. The guard fell behind the two as his companion joined them, each looking in a different direction to ensure that they weren't in danger; not that Akari thought they would be but it was always better to be prepared. Nami herself didn't seem to have any bodyguards on her, but Akari knew better. Harpy's were agile, swift and had ways of concealing themselves. The party made their way down a spiral staircase and into the main entrance of Skyla.

Skyla itself was an enormous building, spanning up to the heavens. It was seen as a gathering place for all types of meetings. The upper floors were used as priest temples and meeting rooms for important matters, such as the clan meetings. The ground floor was a large circular room the center adorned with a statue of a Balik the feared, a minotaur monster who, legend tells, could defeat an entire army with a glance of his blood red eyes. The statue itself was about 15 feet high, but it paled in comparison to the height of the ceiling which stretched up to four stories high. Akari looked up, seeing some of Nami's sisters along with many different types of flying monsters. Akari also spotted a few of the clan leaders lounging about on a few of the plush couches that sat against the walls. A few more monsters stood about talking to one another. A couple of Naga, half snake have mewman. walked past Akari and Nami giving them a respectful nod before slithering up the stairs.

The pair pushed past the front doors of Skyla, Akari shielded his eyes from the morning sun, about an hour till midday he supposed. He looked towards Nami who had her face raised towards the sun, enjoying its warmth. She extended her arms, letting her white feathers ruffle in the light wind and sighed in content. She opened one eye and glanced at him while smirking. He quickly turned his head and started walking in the direction of his tent. Passing by many others and a few building Akari let his eyes roam. Safe Haven was exactly what it sounded like, a place where monsters could live in peace. The general admired this place, over two decades ago a band of monsters were being chased by Mewman soldiers. They had fled into the swamplands in hopes of losing the soldiers. Just as when they could run no more they stumbled into a large clearing, big enough for a whole village. They turned, knowing that they would have to fight but were shocked. The mewman soldiers were standing right on the edge of the clearing, mere feet from the opening but they acted as if they couldn't see the monsters. They eventually turned and left, leaving the monsters unsure of what happened.

Deciding that the swamp had protected them, the monsters set out building Safe Haven. They erected Skyla first, setting it up as the holy temple to thank the universe for their protection. Back then it was only the main hall eventually they added onto it in order to accommodate more monsters.

It was a welcoming as an actual village, with its own bakery, stables, inns, and even a blacksmith. The monsters here lived in peace, wishing to be left alone by Mewmans and other creatures as well. In fact, quite a few Mewmans lived there as well. Akari remembers that story well for he was there when it happened. It was during a clan meeting, all of the leaders were present and discussing matters when all the sudden they heard a commotion outside. The clan leaders rushed to see a small band of Mewmans looking terrified, beaten, and tired. The inhabitants of Safe Haven had their weapons to the Mewman's throats, ready to kill. Akari stood back as he watched the exchange go down. The town leader, a centaur named Stang, was questioning the Mewmans, demanding to know why they had come to their place of sanctuary. Akari noted that the small band was made up of a mother and her two children, an elderly couple, and two men who couldn't have been more than a few years past adulthood. (AN/ going with 16 a adulthood cause Mewni is kinda old timey. Continue on.) They were also accompanied by an older Mewman who stood out to Akari. He was different than the rest, for they were frightened and kept glancing at the monsters while he simply stood there smiling, listening intently to Stang's questions.

He had explained that these people were outcasts from their village, they had dabbled with magic, which was forbidden in that village, and were in need of housing. Many of the monsters immediately protested, claiming that the Mewmans had never given monsters protection so what reason would they have to do the same? While they argued back and forth Akari continued to study the old man. Something about him was off; he was at ease with the monsters, even going so far as to pull out a wooden pipe and light it. Not only that but Akari didn't see him pull out flint or even a match, the man simply put the pipe in his mouth and all the sudden was smoking it. He had looked at Akari and winked, as if they had shared a secret between them.

In the end Stang had decided that the Mewmans could stay for a week, in order to get their bearings. But weeks turned into months, the monsters had grown to like them and had decided to let them stay. Eventually more Mewmans found their way into Safe Haven and they soon became an equal part of the village. The old man was never seen again though, he left a week after the Mewmans had joined. When asked for his name, none of the Mewmans seemed to remember it.

"Akari?" He felt a feathered claw touch his shoulder. Looking up in shock he sees that they are at his tent, his guards holding the entrance flaps open for him patiently. He shakes his head clearing his daydreams, he really does need to be more careful.

"Sorry, got lost in memories." Nami smiled at him, she knew of his habit to get lost when bored, it was one of the things she adored about him.

"I know, just making sure you come back down. Someone has to." With a wink, she walked into the tent with Akari following suit. His command tent wasn't very large, just enough to accommodate about six medium monsters, a circular table low to the ground was at the center of the tent, with pillows set around it for him and others to sit on. Upon entering, Akari saw his Lieutenant, Lidack a light purple skinned Septarian who sported a few battle scars on his arms and one on his neck, standing there waiting for him. Lidack greeted both of the clan leaders as they entered the tent, waiting just long enough for Akari to pour three cups of tea for them. In the background he saw his guards take up positions around the tent.

Once the three of them had settled on the cushions, Lidack placed a purple crystal in the center of the table.

"Sir, we think we may have found it." With a wave of Lidack's hand, the crystal began glowing and a short beam of purple light rose above it. The light formed into an image, that of a cave entrance barely noticeable in the side of what Akari knew was a mountain.

Interested, Akari leaned forward, "Are you sure that this is it? We have had too many false alarms in the past. Remember the forest?" Lidack nodded , the forest incident had been a failure on all accounts. Due to its magical properties and that of the artifact, Akari had sent one of his Lieutenants Aluk, a minotaur, to go and search the forest. What had ended up happening was Aluk thinking it would be a good idea to burn the forest down in order to make way for his castle. But it had seemed that the forest was protected. Aluk's soldiers, the ones that survived at least, claim they say a boy and a girl attempting to stop the deforestation. Aluk had chased after them, hoping to avenge his fallen soldiers, but it seems that he was no match for the mysterious pair.

Lidack continued, "We are sure this time. The cave seems to be teeming with enormous magical energy, meanwhile the rest of the surrounding area seems to be devoid of it. In fact, our casters have claimed that they cannot use magic outside of the cave. It seems that the artifact is draining the magical energy of the area."

Folding his arms, Akari looked at the crystal and nodded, "The sword is said to absorb the magical energy of its wielder correct?"

Lidack nodded, "Yes sir. There are many parallels between the legends regarding the sword, and what we have observed from the cave."

Akari smiled baring his fangs, "Good work Lidack. Start excavation of the artifact, we move on with the Immortal One's plans."

Lidack nodded and stood up, bringing Akari with him, "As you command. But sir, what exactly are the immortal ones plans for the sword?"

"All in due time Lidack. The Immortal One gave us each a mission, you have yours so I expect you to carry through with it, and do not fail me. We are too close to our goal." Sensing that he was being dismissed, Lidack gave Akari a quick salute and walked out of the tent. Akari sat back down and took a sip of his tea.

"So please do tell, what is the Immortal One's plan?" Akari sighed and looked down at his tea. "You don't know do you?"

"To be fair, neither do you." He said accusingly.

"I never said I did, I was just hoping you had some clue of what he plans to do with the sword. It isn't as if he can wield it himself. You know the legends, whoever posses the sword has his or her magical energy drained until they are nothing but a husk. And those with no magic whatsoever are consumed by it. You Septarians aren't very known for your magic wielding properties." She took a sip of her tea, making a face at the taste of it.

"He doesn't plan to wield it himself, that much I know. But nonetheless, we were given our tasks; which you have yet to complete." He growled at the harpy who merely shrugged.

"Getting the clans on our side is much more difficult than finding an artifact Akari. You of all people should know this, being a former diplomat yourself." The brought a feathered claw to her chin, reminiscing in the memory of the general in a suit.

Bringing the cup to his mouth so that she couldn't see his embarrassment. "That was a long time ago, and my memory isn't what it used to be."

Nami cackled, "Oh don't act like an old geezer, i am not ready to be old yet, I still have many a young monster to woo."

"And woo you do Nami." Despite how casually he said it, something in his gaze made Nami's cheeks flush and her feathers quiver.

"A-anyways, I have made some progress. I have almost half of the clans collaborating with us. We have the weapons and supplies we need should we get into another war."

"Excellent, it is always good to be prepared, but let us hope it doesn't come to that. What of the Mewmans?"

Nami smiled and took another sip of her tea, "The Mewman forces remain unawares of our movements, though they are on edge, thanks to the forest incident." Placing the cup down she stood, heading towards the entrance flap of the tent.

Akari grimaced, "You know that the search was meant to be discreet, and that I had nothing to do with it."

She smiled at him "I know dear. But let's be more discreet while excavating the artifact. We wouldn't want the others finding out about it." Akari nodded in agreement. "Well I must be off, I have a whole nest of problems to worry about, not to mention soothing the other clan members."

Akari stood, looking towards the piles of paperwork he had. Being a clan leader wasn't what Akari thought it would be. But the Immortal One needed him there, and Akari would not fail him a second time.


	14. Chapter 11 Pt 2

**Hello all of the lovelies coming back or for the first time. I cannot tell you how much has been happening, started going to a new school, starting a couple of clubs as well as trying to get a job or two. It has been,,, insane. But I have been working on this for god idk, what is it three months now? And unfortunately I cannot come up with a title other than some stupid name like the last one so I hope that works for yall cuz its gonna have to work for me XD.**

 **I also have started a few new projects including a miraculous fanfic which I hope some more ideas will come soon, the hardest part for me is where to start in a story. So hopefully that will have its first chapter out soon, when it does ill make sure to link it cuz I know some people who will like Miraculous.**

 **So without much more wait, lord knows y'all waited long enough. Here is chapter 11 part two, Gratham.**

Chapter 11 pt 2: Gratham

The room was just as big as Star's, reaching to about 3 stories high with a large spiral staircase in the center of it. Unlike Star's, it was very plain, with the walls painted a light pink to match the exterior of the castle and a four poster bed with a nightstand against the left wall. At the end of the bed sat a dark purple chest, large enough to store Marco's entire closet. Other than that there was very little to the room, the second floor seemed to hold a reading nook with windows looking out into the garden and a few wooden chairs sitting around a matching table. From where he was standing, Marco couldn't see the third floor, but he could see no reason to go up there.

"This will be your room for the duration of your stay Marco. I apologize for the lack of decoration, we weren't quite sure what you would like. But say the word and I am sure we will be able to procure anything you ask for." Moon walked around the room looking around at the barren walls and then back at Marco.

"No worries. Thank you for the room though, I love it." He said looking around the room again, he just couldn't fully wrap his head around how huge it was. "Also thank you for letting me stay here."

A deep chuckle came from behind him, "Of course my boy. It's the least we could do after all that you have done for us: protecting Star all of these months." Setting himself next to his wife, River clasped his hands behind his back and smiled up at Marco. Moon looked down at her husband, thinking that while he excelled in combat, River was an excellent peoples person. Granted he was a little excitable, but that was one of the things that she adored about him.

Shaking herself from her musings, Moon started walking towards the door. "Star's room is just at the end of this hallway so you two will be fairly close to each other. Other than that, I believe that concludes our tour of the castle. We shall leave you two for now, River and I still have a few preparations to attend to in order for you to start your training."

In the excitement of a new room, Marco completely forgot about why he was here. The Queen had told him that she knew someone who would be willing to teach him magic. She hadn't gone into detail about them, but she had said that he was extremely gifted for someone not of royal blood. The excitement he originally felt began to creep back up, along with some anxiety. What kind of teacher would they be? What spells would Marco have to learn? What if he wasn't able to cast magic as well as everyone thought he could. Millions of little worries began to pop into his head, causing Marco to break out in a cold sweat.

"Hey are you okay? You're getting kinda sweaty, kinda like when you're about to talk to Jackie." Star's hand squeezed his shoulder, seeming to bring him back to the present.

Marco looked at her and gave her a halfway smile, "Yeah i'm fine. Just, kinda worried about learning magic."

Star laughed and jumped on Marco's bed, "Oh please, don't worry about it Marco. Magic is easy." To demonstrate this she pulled out her wand and shot a blast of pink into the air, "Besides I bet you will be able to do all kinds of stuff."

"Yeah I guess you're right." He looked at his arms; hidden beneath his red hoodie were his tattoos. Was it really that easy to learn magic? Granted Star was pretty amazing when it came to that stuff, but she was also born into it. Not to mention her magic wand probably helped her out. But what about him?

Hopping off of his bed Star grabbed Marco's hand, dragging him out of his new room. "Come on, I want to show you my room." Glad for the distraction, Marco let himself be lead by her.

Star had not only shown him her room, but also the places in the castle that her mom hadn't shown them. They had started deep in the basement where the Knight of the Wash cleaned all of the kingdoms clothes. Star had explained that the Wash were a guild of knights who obsessed over cleanliness. After the long climb back upstairs, Star had show him the upper floors of the castle. Most of the rooms contained empty bedrooms, closets full of magical cleaning supplies, and mostly storage areas.

Marco noticed that there were very little guards around the castle, and from his limited knowledge on knights, he thought that they trained at the castle they served at. When he asked Star about it she simply lead him down another hallway. Stopping at one of the windows pointing towards the mountains to the east, he could see hundreds of soldiers training in the courtyard. A good number of them were in full body armor, marching together in perfect cadence. Some looked as if they were doing manual labor, sharpening weapons, polishing armor, fixing up the training dummies. The others were fighting each other. Even from the fourth floor, Marco could see the fluidity of their sword movements, how they each seemed to know their partner's moves perfectly.

He was pulled away by an impatient Star, who could smell the food all the way from the ground floor. They raced to the dining hall, to which Star won, but only because she cheated. By the time they got their the King and Queen were already seated and food was already being served. With gusto, the pair dug into piles of corn on the cob, corn mash, sweet corn, corn soup, and other corn related foods. Marco had always wondered how the Mewmans were able to consume nothing but corn, but after trying out the variety of corn dishes they had to offer, Marco couldn't imagine getting tired of the Mewman food.

After dinner the King and Queen had informed the pair that they were to start their training tomorrow morning, to which Star complained saying that they hadn't even gotten settled in yet.

"The quicker we start your training the better prepared you will be should anything happen. Not that we are expecting anything in particular, but it is always best to be prepared." For whatever reason, the queen looked hesitant at Marco and Star. But before they could question her they were dismissed to their rooms. Marco and Star stayed up for hours talking about Mewni, how they kinda miss Earth and all of their friends. Eventually Star was yawning so much that Marco forced her to go to bed. Lying in his own he kept thinking about what tomorrow would bring, he kept thinking of his future mentor, what he would be like. Marco could just imagine a dad like figure teaching him magic. Or someone really young who happened to be really good at magic. Marco kept imagining the different types of magic he would learn as he drifted into sleep.

"S-Star, i'm not going to fight you. Please put the wand down, let's talk, please Star." The boy's cries fell on deaf ears as the battle ready princess lunged at him with her blade.

"I have no more patience for talking Marco. After everything that you've done to me, this ends now."

Falling back to avoid her slashes, Marco tried to think of a way to stop Star. The voice was right, he was going to have to use magic to stop her. Maybe if he could knock her out without actually hurting her he coul-.

 _ **NO!**_ A voice, deeper than the one egging him to use his powers, rang out onto the smoky battlefield. He knew that voice, he had heard it before, in the hospital.

 _ **THIS IS NOT THE WAY MARCO. THERE IS ALWAYS ANOTHER SOLUTION TO A PROBLEM. EVEN IF IT'S NOT THE EASIEST.**_

The other voice chuckled in response, "Ah but the easiest solution is sometimes the right solution and more often than not the most fun.

Marco stood there looking at Star. The pissed off princess was advancing towards him with blood lust in her eyes. Though he couldn't remember what he did, he could feel that somehow he was at fault. 'The easiest solution wasn't always the right solution. Marco bent down and sat on his knees arms on his legs.

"What are you doing?" The first voice rang out in panic. Marco simply sat there staring at Star as she approached.

"I'm sorry Star." He said. The girl hesitated, confused, not knowing if this was some kind of trick or not. Marco continued, "I'm sorry Star, I never meant to hurt you."

The girl kneeled in front of him, looking into his eyes before leaning forward and running her sword through him.

*Ring Ring Ring* "Master Marco. It is time for you to awake" Marco sprang upwards at the sound of the loud bell. Frantically looking around for the source of the noise, he noticed a small boy at the door. The boy wore a long teal shirt that reached all the way to his thighs. He wore a grey shirt underneath the teal one with a matching pair of grey pants tucked into black boots. He wore a striped hat with a feather coming from the top of it announcing his position. He spoke in a sarcastic tone and wore an expression that Marco could only read as disgust.

The boy folded his hands behind his back and stood at attention, with his back set straight and his eyes looking past Marco. "The Queen has ordered me to inform you that you are to start your training within the hour. And that she wishes you to get dressed in these." Seemingly out of nowhere, the squire produced a set of black pants and a white shirt with a pair of black boots resting on top of them.

Without a word, Marco grabbed the clothes from the boy and started striping. He had his hoodie and shirt off when he realized that the squire was still standing at the doorway.

"Uhm. Do you mind?" He asked the squire, who rolled his eyes, bowed a bit and closed the door. Marco had the feeling that the squire was right outside waiting for him. Electing to ignore it, Marco shook his head and continued to strip. The clothes were made of some kind of cotton, they were softer, more breathable, more comfortable. It felt like he wasn't wearing anything at all. They came to a rest at his ankles, which he figured the ends would be tucked into his boots. He had just thrown the shirt on, which was so large he could have curled up into it, when he heard the door open. He turned to see Star peeking in.

"Wow Marco, don't you clean up nice." She said with a wink. She walked into the room, closing the door behind her, sizing Marco up. She was wearing a teal dress with a matching blue corset over her torso. The dress ended just before her knees and had purple hearts stringed from her hips, down and to the back of the dress. On her arms were poofy blue sleeves which were tied shut by a blue band, as well as a matching pair of blue shoes with calf high socks. He hair was loose held not by her normal horned headband, but by a crown.

"Wow Star, you look beautiful." Star blushed a bit and looked down, smoothing out the front of her dress.

"Y-you don't have to say that so casually you know. H-here, you're wearing that wrong." Hurriedly she reached forward and grabbed the waistband of Marco's pants as well as the hem of his large shirt.

"You're supposed to wear these at your waist with the shirt tucked in." She stuffed the shirt in lightly, reaching all around him making sure all of the shirt was tucked.

"I-i could have done that Star." He stammered. There was no reason for him to be nervous, Star was just trying to help him, but Marco couldn't stop his whole body from heating up.

"After that you tie it off with this." Star pulled a leather band from behind Marco, whom only just now noticed the belt loops around the waist. Star put one end of the belt through the first loop and continued to dress Marco, who's back was ramrod straight as he kept his arms by his side.

When she had finished pulling the belt through all the loops she pulled it tight enough so that the pants wouldn't slip down, man how embarrassing that would have been.

"There all done." She looked over her handiwork satisfied, "Hey you alright?" Marco simply nodded hoping beyond hope that she didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.

But she wasn't entirely convinced, "Is the belt too tight? I can adju-"

"NO! I-I mean, thank you. The belt is just fine." Star looked at him curiously, something was up with him. But she decided it would be best to drop it. Earth boy's were so weird.

"Alright. Well come on, put the boots on I want to get some breakfast." She opened the door as Marco put his boots on making sure to tuck his pants into them. As he had thought, the squire was right outside the door. He came in and began gathering Marco's clothes up. He reached for the red hoodie lying on the bed, but Marco snatched it up before the squire could grab it.

"S-Sorry, this one can stay here." The squire made no comment but simply nodded blankly and left with the dirty clothes. Marco looked at the hoodie. There was no way he was going to be able to wear it comfortably over his current clothes, so he decided to store the hoodie in the chest at the foot of the bed. That way, none of the squires would think it was dirty and try to wash it.

With that, he made his way out of his room closing the door behind him. He and Star walked down the hallway and made towards the main dining hall, passing full suits of armor, portraits of knights, and busts of previous lords and ladies of the castle. When they got to the dining breakfast was already on the table. Large stacks of corncakes towered over the center of the table, along with eggs, what looked like ham, and cornhash.

River was busy stuffing his face full of well everything when they walked in. Cornhash littered his blond beard, making it seem like his beard was sprouting tiny beards. Moon was looking over letters while trying to keep River from getting corn on them. Without a word Marco and Star sat down across from each other and began eating.

Star ate so much like her father, in fact the only thing she was missing was a golden beard herself, but Marco had a feeling that she would soon have one anyways from the way she ate her cornmash. Marco looked over at Moon who just so happened to glance his way and both of them sighed knowingly.

It wasn't long before Marco was stuffed, no wonder they had given him such a large shirt. Once they had all finished a group of squires came and took the plates to the kitchen. Once the table was cleaned off Moon looked at Marco.

"Those clothes seem to fit you well Marco. Are you ready to begin your training today?"

Marco shrugged, "To tell you the truth, I'm kinda scared."

River chuckled, "While there is nothing to fear from being taught something new, it means that you are excited to learn my boy. But do not fear, Gratham is a great teacher." Just then the squire that had given Marco his clothes entered the room. He walked up, importantly, to the queen and began whispering to her.

'Gratham', while the name had no particular meaning to Marco, he felt some kind of power behind it. It was along the same lines as Chuck Norris or Rambo. He fidgeted in his seat, excited that he would begin his training today.

"Alright thank you." The queen dismissed the squire and stood up, River followed suit. "Well, everything is ready for you. Marco, I believe it's time for you to meet your new teacher." The king and queen turned towards the double doors that led to the main hall, Marco and Star looked at each other and got up to follow. The pair followed the king and queen down the main hall and to the left. The hall was much like the others, containing a few suits of armor as well as portraits of Mewman knights, kings, and queens. At the end of the hall was a pair of wooden double doors. The group passed through them and entered what seemed to be a garden. Immediately, Marco's nose started itching signaling the amount of pollen in the air.

Stifling a sneeze, the boy took a look around the garden as he blindly followed the Butterfly's. Their current path, which was covered by stone archways, seemed to wrap around the entire garden with alternative paths leading into the garden itself. There were all kinds of roses in the garden. Hugging the pathway were rose bushes, neatly trimmed to follow the pathway. Further in, Marco could see a thin circle of purple violets surrounding stone benches. The center of the garden was dominated by a large stone fountain. The base of it being a large, curvy bowl filled with crystal clear water. Small spouts at the outer edge of the bowl spewed water into the pool; while water from a second, smaller bowl dripped from above. On top of the second bowl was a large spout spraying mist into the air. Marco realized that this served to water the roses themselves.

"The Butterfly Rose garden, planted by queen Solaria. It's said that she enjoyed the color of the roses." said the queen. Marco knew very little of Star's family history, but the princess had told him that Solaria had been a bloodthirsty queen, leading many crusades against the monsters and Marco couldn't see the former queen enjoying roses.

The group continued on their path taking one of the side roads to their right. This seemed to lead them to an open field containing only a few, neatly trimmed, hedges. While glancing around, Marco noticed Star was looking at him. Thinking nothing of it he looked at her and gave her a smile. Her cheeks reddened a bit as she beamed back at him. Looking forward, Marco saw that they were coming up on a stone tower.

"This here used to be an old watch tower. Before we expanded our lands my ancestors had a wall built around the castle. But now since we are at a time of peace, and also have the magical barrier, we have no use for it except for guest rooms." The queen walked forward as she talked, River and Star were listening intently even though they probably knew this already. "Gratham requested the room, he said that he enjoyed the view of the rose garden." The queen chuckled before putting on a stern look, as if a bad memory had surfaced.

They had reached the base of the tower and needles to say; it was huge. Marco gaped at the sheer size of it: it must have been at least 50 feet high and ten feet wide. The wooden door stood about six feet high, intricate curves radiated from the doorknob, flowing to the hinges. A small butterfly sat in the middle of the door with a metal handle attached to it.

Queen Moon walked up to the door and pulled on the butterfly handle, slamming it down twice. Despite its size the clang of metal on metal reverberated throughout the entire door, Marco could hear it echoing inside the tower. There was no answer. For a minute they stood there waiting, Marco was starting to doubt whether they had the right place or not and Star was fidgeting with her dress, impatient. Silently, the door swung open revealing a round room with a staircase hugging the left wall.

Without invitation the queen and king walked into the room, followed by Star and Marco. Looking around, Marco was impressed. For such a small space it really made a big impact. The far north side of the room was made into a kitchen of sorts, with a small fireplace with a stew pot set over it. A bundle of wood sat next to it on the right, and on the left was a stone counter with a small bowl carved into it, supposedly the sink. The rest of the room was dominated by a round table with two wooden chairs. Star, curious of what the rest of the place held in store, began to climb up the stairs, signaling for Marco to follow. The king and queen followed the boy's pace up to the top of the tower.

At the very top of the stairs was a wooden hatch that lifted up very easily when Star pushed on it. Soon the two pairs had climbed into another room, this one was much nicer. On the floor in front of them was a round purple carpet, which covered almost the entire room. To the left of the hatch was a dark wooden desk set against a trio of windows. Marco could just barely make out the rose garden through the windows. On the desk were a number of worn leather bound books, a few sheets of paper, a quill and ink, and a few other items that the boy didn't recognize. To the right was a small bed, big enough for one person, with a small chest at the foot of it. The rest of the room was bare, with no decorations on the wall and no owner of the room in sight.

"That's strange. He requested that we be up here at this time. Did he forget perhaps?" The queen continued to look around the small room despite the fact that there was no place to hide. Marco looked around as well, moving towards the bed. His gaze was drawn to the footchest for some reason, there was nothing special about the wooden chest. He kneeled in front of the chest, pressing his hand to the front of it.

The chest burst open, white light erupting from it. And from that light sprung a shadow, it jumped to the ceiling hanging there long enough for Marco to see that it was a person wrapped in a brown cloak. The figure looked around the room taking in each of its occupants. The king and queen backed up towards the door, leaving Marco and Star standing in front of the chest. The cloaked figure, seemingly immune to gravity, twisted so that it was facing Marco. With inhuman strength, it lunged at Marco who barely had time to twist his body and avoid the figure. Landing on its hands, the figure spun around kicking its feet out, Marco bent backwards narrowly avoiding the leather covered foot from hitting his face but at the same time falling onto his back leaving his front exposed. In one fluid movement, the figure spun around and flipped itself so that it was facing Marco, landing on one leg with in the air.

Instinctively Marco rolled to the side, hitting the chest, as the figure slammed his foot down splintering the wood where Marco was. Getting up, Marco saw Star point her wand at the figure, its light glowing pink. Before she could release the energy, the figure extended his arm, putting his palm to the wand causing its light to die out. Stunned, Star stood there staring at her wand as the figure turned back towards Marco who was already on his feet in a fighting stance.

Hands by his face Marco side stepped forward right foot first. The figure, seeming to acknowledge what Marco was doing took up a stance of his own. It's was looser, while Marco had his whole body taught and ready to take a hit, the figures was more limber, ready to dodge at any moment. Hands at it's chest the figure lunged forward causing Marco to stumble back a step, hitting the chest with his heel. Marco took his place back and began observing the figure. He couldn't see anything beneath the cloak it seemed to shimmer like a wave of heat, making it impossible to tell what height and build his opponent was.

The figure lunged at Marco, causing the boy to stumble back hitting the chest with his heel. Attempting to get away from the obstacle, Marco took a step forward and threw a jab at the figure, who dodged it easily. Marco threw another jab followed quickly by a right swing. Instead of dodging, the figure caught Marco's arm and twisted around pulling Marco with it and slamming the boy to the ground. The figure sat on Marco's lower back, keeping the boy's arm behind his back and planting his food on the boys head.

"Your moves are slow, predictable, and unbalanced. You need to be able to attack and counterattack in an instant's notice." A smooth, obviously male, voice came from above. Marco felt the figure shift above him and the weight on his back lifted and his arm was released. He saw a gloved hand in front of him, and grabbed onto it and let it lift him into the air. Rolling his aching shoulder, Marco turned and faced the hooded figure. He reached up to his face and pulled the hood back, revealing a surprisingly young face.

The man gave Marco a crooked smile as he ran his fingers through his brown hair. Marco felt something… off about the man. His green eyes seemed to be scanning Marco as if they could learn everything about him at just a glance. The lines around the man's eyes seemed to set them in a permanent smile as he continued to comb his hair.

He turned towards the king and queen, "He's good considering that he hasn't had any prior training. But he still has a lot to learn." The man looked back at Marco, and scanned him once again. He smiled and nodded, "I hear you can use magic?" Marco nodded, still somewhat reeling from the surprise attack.

"Uhm excuse me? But why did you attack him?" Star, who was somewhat forgotten in the onslaught came around and stood next to Marco.

"Ah yes. So sorry about that, but I wanted to see how much you knew before we got acquainted. In fact, im surprised that you didn't use magic and chose to rely on your fighting skills." He unbuttoned his coat, revealing a grey tunic underneath and a silver chain, mosty, hidden under his collar.

Marco shifted from side to side, "Well I'm still not used to using magic. I've fought monsters with Star before, but I mostly used my karate training." Marco had to hold himself back from striking a pose like he's used to. This was his new sensei after all, he had to make a good impression.

Gratham nodded, "Completely understandable and a good habit to have. Magic is a fickle creature," Marco fet the air get thicker. "While it is useful in almost every situation, It will fail you in your most desperate time of need." Marco and Star looked at each other. They knew all too well the limits of magic. When Marco had been kidnapped by Toffee, Star had tried to free him from a magical cage. Her spells didn't seem to have any affect on it, except for one and even that had failed. Not to mention the forest incident as well as the graveyard fiasco.

Trying to change the subject Star asked a question, "Uhm excuse me Mr. Gratham." The man chuckled, his laugh lines becoming more prominent.

"Please both of you, just call me Gratham. Mr. Gratham makes me sound like an old man, which isn't far off I guess."

"Well yeah, about that. I thought you were supposed to be an old man or something. You know like grey hair, long white beard, hunchback." Gratham chuckled again.

"Star that's very rude." Queen Moon chastised, to which Star just shrugged.

"No, no, no. It's a perfectly legitimate question my queen. You see Star, looks can be very deceiving. I am in fact several hundred years old."

"WHAT!" They shouted in unison. Their surprise caused Gratham to laugh again, widening his already lopsided grin. The king and queen laughed as well, Gratham would often tell them stories of how people reacted to his revealing his age, but this was their first time seeing it.

"How do you look so young? What's your secrete?" Star asked wide eyed.

Gratham smiled at her, "I won't tell you everything. But i've spent plenty of time in other dimensions where time is different or distorted. Some of them years could pass in this dimension, and only a few days in the other. "

"Woah, cool. I didn't know dimensions like that existed." Star looked at Marco who immediately was not on board.

"Star no. If time is different there, we could end up being there for an hour and being gone here for a year or something like that."

Her fun ruined, Star realized the logic behind his statement, "Yeah that's true."

Gratham moved towards her and put a hand on her shoulder, "Don't worry princess, you aren't missing out on much. Those dimensions are pretty boring, most of them don't even have mirror service there." Star nodded and laughed.

Cheered up now she looked at Marco and giggled, "You totally got your butt kicked." Marco's face flushed in embarrassment.

Gratham laughed with Star, causing Marco even further embarrassment. "Ah, do not be embarrassed. I have had hundreds of years to perfect my skills, you however could use some more practice." He turned towards Moon and River, his voice turning serious, "My king and queen, if you do not mind I would like to get Marco's training started."

Moon nodded, "Certainly, do please take care of him." She turned towards Marco and Star, "Star come, you must begin your lessons as well. Don't worry you will see Marco at dinner."

Star hesitated in leaving Marco's side and the boy couldn't blame her. They've been through a lot these past few months. Marco grabbed Star's shoulders, forcing her to face him. "Don't worry Star, it's not like i'm gonna get kidnapped again." She laughed immediately at the ridiculous notion. They were in the safest place in Mewni afterall. She nodded then turned and walked to her mother and father. Before climbing down the ladder, Star gave Marco another smile before disappearing beneath the floor.

Gratham began circling Marco, looking at him up and down, sizing him up. Marco stood there awkwardly wondering if he should let Gratham continue in silence, or if he should say something. Thankfully his decision was made for him.

"So tell me my boy, you obviously have had some combat training, what have you been taught?" He stood in front of Marco with his back to the door, arms crossed over his chest.

"Well uhm, I have learned some Karate, some Taekwondo and, that's about it." Marco stood there as Gratham nodded. He continued nodding for some time, seemingly unaware of it.

"Uh… Gratham?" The man shook his head, snapping back to reality.

"Oh… Sorry my boy. Where was I? Ah yes, from what I got of our spar you can certainly hold your own. However this land is much different than Earth and mere hand to hand combat isn't enough, Marco. Nor is it what I was asked to teach you." Gratham started rummaging in the chest, the clank of metal and, if Marco wasn't mistaken, a chicken clucking could be heard from within.

"Wait, you've been to Earth?" Gratham stood up closing the chest and locking it shut.

"Oh yes many times. Let's see." He turned around and sat on the top of the chest. "Last time I went must have been around the 60's. I met many people too, including a funny man with glasses who was very interested in my yellow submarine." Marco nodded along. He found it interesting that Gratham had been to Earth, he was just so used to Star not knowing a lot about Earth and having to explain a lot to her.

"Come. Let us get started." Gratham moved towards the hatch, and opening it he jumped down completely ignoring the ladder. Marco decided it would be best if he took the slow way down. Gratham was already outside waiting for him. Once Marco had reached the door Gratham began walking back in the direction of the rose garden.

"So what are we going to be doing?" Marco asked jogging to catch up with his new sensei. Gratham cast a side glance at him and smiled. It was good to have an eager student, but he decided to wait and see if that eagerness held.

"Well, I still don't know much about your abilities Marco. The queen certainly thinks that you have the talents necessary to learn advanced magic. However, we don't know how much of that is true." He could see the look in Marco's eye and decided to head off the question that the boy was about to ask. "I am not doubting your talents Marco, but when you have lived as long as I have you need to assess things for yourself rather than take someone else's advice. I don't want to expect too much out of you and end up hurting you. Alright here we are."

They had reached the gardens, all of the pollen from the roses caused Marco's nose to itch. The pair stood in the inner ring of the garden. They had plenty of space to do whatever Gratham had planned for them, the thought of it gave Marco a bit of anxiety. Gratham unbuttoned his shirt and began taking it off, leaving his pants on in the process. Marco stood there not sure of what to do, watching as Gratham neatly folded the cotton shirt and placed it on one of the benches. He turned back to Marco and smiled.

"Don't want that getting in the way, you can keep yours on if you'd like. But I doubt you're going to want to after our spar." Marco didn't understand what Gratham was getting at so he opted to keep his shirt on. Truth be told, Marco was a bit self conscious of his body. Granted he wasn't fat or anything, but he definitely wasn't ripped.

"Alright Marco get ready and don't hold back." Gratham placed his left foot in front of his right, letting his left arm rest in front of him while his right was brought up to his face. There was something in his eyes that made Marco hesitate. He had seen those eyes before: his mind flashing back to the forest where star was- NO!. Marco shook his head and tensed himself. He wasn't going to think about that. Right now he had to take Gratham on.

Marco hadn't really had any other Martial arts training other than Karate. But he could tell from the stance that Gratham was using Taekwondo, a fast and mobile fighting style. Marco readied himself, bring his hands down to his side, breathing out deep and long. He brought his left fist in front of his face, pointing it towards Gratham, and kept his right fist close to his body near his waist.

Gratham seemed to zone out, but Marco knew better. He had watched and participated in enough fights to know that this was the fighters gaze. He randomly recalled something from a book he read a long time ago, where it was described as being a pool of water: letting everything reflect within him yet not taking any of it in. He was waiting for Marco to make the first move.

Marco advanced, keeping his left foot in front of his right. He kept glancing at Grathams legs and fists, wondering what he was going to strike with first. Marco opened with a right jab, Marco expected Gratham to either dodge or block it. So he was caught off guard when Gratham grabbed Marco's fist along with his right arm, holding it at the shoulder, and twisted; flipping Marco over his back.

Marco landed on his back breathless. Gratham stood over him, offering his hand to help the boy up. "I'm sorry to do that to you, but I figured it would be good to teach you to be prepared for anything." He said it with a smile, making Marco think that he was not at all sorry. "Alright come at me again, this time I won't flip you."

Marco immediately readied himself, somewhat pissed at how quickly he was taken down. Marco lunged with his right leg this time. Gratham, seeming to anticipate this, grabbed it midair and then lashed out with his left leg, knocking Marco down once again.

Again Marco got up, and again Marco attacked, and again Marco was knocked down. After about the eighth or ninth time Marco stayed down, panting heavily and wincing with each breath. "You are leaving yourself open to attacks Marco. When you fight you shouldn't just think about attacking, you should also think about defending. If you attack with no plan to defend yourself at the same time, then you are going to end up just like you are except dead. Come, get up. Let me show you something."

With a groan Marco stood up. Some of his anger had left along with the rest of his strength. "Alright notice how I always let you attack first?" Marco nodded, "That's because usually the first person to attack is thinking of offense only. The first hit is the most important one, it sets the stage for the rest of the fight. If the attacker gets a good hit on his or her opponent, then they have the advantage. But if they miss or they get countered, then they are at a serious disadvantage." Marco nodded in understanding. It made sense because if he could counter his opponents hits and then counter attack, he would immediately gain the upper hand. "Get ready Marco, this time i'm going to attack first." The smile on his face made Marco's anxiety spring back into his stomach. 'This was going to hurt' was all that he could think of as he readied himself.

 **Some end notes for this chapter. I hope this one went alright, man ten pages doesn't look like a lot in this format XD. So I know I promised something new by christmas but due to circumstances I wasn't able to post anything. But I am working on some more ideas for this one and for other stories that hopefully ill be able to share with you guys soon.**

 **To sell myself out more, I created a tumblr blog which is about as active as my fanfic XD. So check out brokenwritersblog for some random short stories and response posts. Thank you guys so much for sticking with me this whole time. Y'all seriously don't know how much your support means to me, and again i am so sorry that it is taking this long for me to post but sometimes I jsut can't write. And i definitely dont want to put out stuff that yall would hate.**

 **So thanks again, I hope to see yall later.**


	15. Chapter 12

**Hey there, long time no post. Lot of sht has been happening recently so sorry about not posting recently. I'm gonna try to do longer chapters from now on so hopefully, there will be longer chapters with better content. Thanks again so much for sticking with the story, I hope to eventually rewrite and republish the earlier chapters as well as write another fic soon. Stay safe guys.**

 **Chapter 12: Sparring**

Star looked out her window onto the gardens. Somewhere in the background, she could hear her tutor talking about boring stuff. Since she had come back to Mewni, her parents wanted her to continue her royal tutoring. Which meant a lot of hoopla about how a _princess should act, where should a princesses pinky be when sipping tea, who you should let court you,_ and a bunch of other nonsense. Her tutor had begun explaining the political relations that Mewni had with other kingdoms. She had seen it as exciting to learn about other places, but boredom quickly reminded her of itself. If only she could have the lessons Marco was having. The study tower looked out into the rose garden, and from her position, she could see Marco and his teacher sparring. She loved fighting, ever since she was a little kid when her bodyguards would teach her how to strangle a stuffed teddy bear; so having to watch her best friend be taught how to fight while she had to be taught how to princess infuriated her.

"Princess Star. Princess, are you listening?" Her tutor, Gavel frowned at her behind a pair of round spectacles. "May I need to remind you that the history of the kingdoms and their alliance is- "

"Yes yes, I know Gavel. Sorry, I just think it's boring." "Star huffed. Despite logic telling her that she needed to pay attention, Star just couldn't be bothered. It wasn't something she enjoyed, it required calculation, memorization, and some other -tion word. Gavel sighed behind her and closed the lesson book he was holding. Setting it down on Star's desk, he began cleaning his spectacles with a handkerchief he pulled from his pocket. He looked down at Star, he could feel the disappointment radiating about her. Despite what she thought about herself, she was Gavels most proficient student. He has served many royal families and almost none of them pick up the material as quickly as she does. When she applied herself, and she applied herself most in combat and magical studies, she could accomplish anything she wanted.

He followed her eyes to the courtyard outside to see the boy and Gratham sparing with each other. 'He's the one set to protect the princess then?' Gavel thought to himself with a smile, 'As if she needed it.' The boy, from what Gavel could see, certainly had potential. He was in good shape and form; and from the glimpses that Gavel had caught of their lesson, the boy seemed to pick up the moves quickly. He also had seen how the princess turned her attention to him anytime she could sneak a glance. Young children were not subtle in the slightest.

He returned his attention back to his protege. How was he to keep her attention, there had to be a method in which he hadn't considered yet. Every disciple was different, and this one was energetic; perhaps getting some of that out of her would yield better results.

"Princess, would you please follow me?" Star looked up in surprise but stood up as Gavel headed towards the door of her room. Going through the door he turned and smiled at her, "I think we are much overdue for a break." Somewhat surprised Star reached for her wand which was sitting on the desk where she was working. As her hand got near it began it glow acid green. The hairs on her neck tingled and she spun around, she was all alone in the room. She looked back at her wand, it too had stopped glowing and was lying there unchanged; had she imagined it after all? She grabbed it and followed Gavel who was waiting for her at the end of the hall.

The next three weeks seemed to simultaneously go by really fast and take forever to end. Everyday Marco was woken up early by the snobby squire that had brought him his clothes the first day. After he got dressed he was summoned by Gratham, who asked that Marco not eat breakfast for fear of making the boy sick. They started the day with vigorous stretches, which never failed to get Marco sweating before the sun had even risen halfway. He had trouble completing them at first, unable to contort his body into the required positions. Even now he wasn't able to complete the entire routine but had managed to get most of them down. After the stretches the pair would spar, each session leaving Marco with a new canvas of bruises and welts on his body. Marco quickly understood why Gratham had advised him to take his shirt off: the cotton stuck to him uncomfortably and hindered his movements. The first time he spared without his shirt, Gratham interrogated Marco about his tattoos.

When Marco told him of how he got them he thought Gratham had passed out from boredom. He had a blank look about him and didn't budge when Marco finished the story. It turned out that he was simply digesting the boy's story, finding it interesting but never asking Marco about them again.

After the sparring lesson, Marco and Gratham ate breakfast by the fountain which sent a wave of mist in the air, cooling them from their workout. Gratham always took this time to teach Marco various subjects. He began by explaining to Marco how Magic worked differently with different people. With people like him and Gratham magic was drawn from chi, or as some call it mana. Each person had a set amount of mana within them, some people were able to channel it easily and utilize it into magic while others are unable to ever tap into their mana reserve. There were other people who used magical artifacts to cast magic, such as Star. Some magical objects, such as crystals and stones had their own set of stored magic that had to be recharged occasionally. But other, more powerful, objects were able to draw upon the magic of the universe itself; this was the case with the Butterfly's wand.

Marco mulled over these facts as they ate; if he had always had the ability to use magic why did it manifest itself now? Was it because of what happened to Star? He took the last bite of the biscuit Gratham had given him, it was much better than the corn products the Butterfly's never ceased to serve. The first few weeks, Marco ate as much Mewman corn he could get his hands on, it was like a drug to him. But after those first few weeks, he grew tired of it. Everything tasted the same and began leaving an awful aftertaste in his mouth. Gratham was his saving grace. Every break the teacher brought a different type of food, all seemingly from different worlds. Whenever Marco inquired to their origin, the old man just smiled at him and jumped into the planets that he got them from. Some were impressive, purple hills that felt like dogs fur; large mountainous trees that seemed to go on into oblivion; a world where oceans filled the sky and clouds rolled across the ground. Marco ate everything the old man said, imagining each and every one of them.

The sensei's appearance was somewhat misleading, and while Marco knew of why Gratham looked so young he still couldn't believe the man was centuries old sometimes. It didn't help that Gratham smiled a lot, that just seemed to make him get younger every time he smiled; especially when he was beating the crap out of Marco. But as infectious as it was, Marco couldn't help but smile with him.

Finishing his biscuit, Gratham turned to Marco about to say something when something behind Marco caught his eye. He stood up smiling, "Gavel, what brings you here?" He walked past Marco who stood and turned with him. A tall, skinny man was gliding towards them; Star following just a couple of steps behind. The man stood at about 6'3 and was dressed differently than the other Mewmans Marco had seen around the castle. He wore a blue three-piece suit with a matching dark blue tie. He could easily have passed for a human if there wasn't something about him that was off. 'Observe everything about everyone, even your friends. Gratham's lesson came to Marco's mind as the new figure approached. Marco kept observing the man as he walked forward to hug Gratham, patting him on the back.

"Master. It has been far too long. If I had known that you were here I would have contacted you sooner."

Gratham gave off his addictive chuckle, "I didn't want to disturb you from your duties, I had heard you were the Butterfly family's personal tutor, a very prestigious position."

Gavel blushed a bit at his old teacher's praise. His blond ponytail shook a bit as he bowed his head. Marco struggled to recall what Star had told him about her tutor, but she never really talked about him except to say that his lessons were boring.

"Ah and I see you brought the lovely princess Butterfly. M'lady" Gratham sank into a low bow as Star greeted him and sent a smile towards Marco. Ever since he started training they hadn't been able to spend much time together. They would talk at dinner and a bit before they went to bed, but Marco was constantly tired so he had to cut their conversations short. He smiled at her, glad to be able to see her during the day. He couldn't stop his eyes from wandering across her either. She shined in the bright blue dress that went down to her mid-thigh, covered her shoulders, and swished in the outside wind. Despite his efforts to contain himself, Marco couldn't stop staring at Star it just wasn't fair how good she looked. But along with that he couldn't help but feel a spike of jealousy at how well she matched with Gavel.

"What brings you to grace us with your presence?" Gratham inquired rising from his bow.

Gavel pushed his spectacles up his nose and smiled back at Gratham, "I thought we would take a short break from our usual studies." He flicked his gaze onto Marco, who felt a tingle run down his spine. He felt the man scan him with his gaze, seizing up the princess's protector. A bit embarrassed to still be shirtless, Marco tried to cover himself a bit by moving his arms in front. While he had bulked up a bit, Marco was by no means fit, but he wouldn't say that he was fat. The memory of Star poking at his flab didn't really help his self-image though.

Gratham, seeming not to notice Marco's embarrassment spoke, "Well, we are in the middle of our lesson. I have an idea. Gavel, why don't you help me with a few demonstrations?" The man's face broke into a smile and nodded in agreement. Getting over his shyness, Marco observed him; but still, he could not figure out what was so odd about him. His looked to his left at Star who had snickered at Gratham's suggestion.

Gratham looked at her, eyebrow raised. "My dear princess, it seems that you do not think Gavel to be a fighter?"

Star nodded without hesitation, "I just can't imagine him fighting with anything but a book." Gratham laughed along with her, which only caused Gavel's pale face to take on a reddish tinge. Without a word the slender man began unbuttoning his suit jacket, folding it neatly and placing it on the side of the fountain. His shirt and tie followed suit. For a tutor, he was built really well. The man's undershirt conformed to his body, showing off how thin the man really was. It was almost unnatural how slender he was, there was no possible way all of his organs could fit within him. His neat ponytail rested at the middle of his back as he towered over Gratham. He looked ridiculous, his top half being nude while his bottom half being covered by dress pants; but Marco felt a sense of power emanating from the man.

"I accept your offer master. It's been a while since we last sparred." Gavel said as he wrapped one arm around the other, stretching it. Gratham, who was already warmed up, stood there waiting.

"Indeed it has. However, I think this will be a good lesson for both of our pupils." Gavel nodded in response, and quit stretching. Marco and Star made their way over to a ring of stone benches where they could easily observe their teachers and still be out of the way.

"Well, I may be a bit rusty but I'm ready if you are, old man."

Gratham laughed aloud at the jibe. Marco observed the father and son bantering that was transpiring with amazement. He was still somewhat afraid of Gratham, he knew how powerful the old man was "Very well sapling, I assume you have your skins?" To answer, Gavel reached to his pockets where a pair of white gloves were hiding. Marco could see some sort of marking on each of the gloves, but couldn't make them out. He glanced to his right as he felt Star sit down next to him. Whether it was by accident or not, her leg rested against his, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Star looking at him. He didn't trust himself to speak right now so he just prayed that his face wasn't as red as it felt.

Despite his efforts, he couldn't stop himself from glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. While his best friend certainly liked her pinks and teals and he couldn't help but agree with how the colors matched her personality perfectly, she looked incredibly pretty in the light blue dress. It was different than her normal attire, it was formal, royal he could say; fit for a princess. He continued to stare through his peripherals, taking in her hair and how it was, for lack of better words, pretty. With it styled the way it was it seemed to reflect the sun in a way that made it seem like she was glowing.

"Marco!" Gratham's shout startled him out of his trance; Star looked at him curiously. "Do well to observe you might learn something." Marco nodded his understanding and leaned forward, determined to observe everything. Marco didn't know what was going to happen between the two teachers. While Gratham hadn't taught him how to use or control magic, Marco knew the theories that applied to spell casting. He was excited to see what kind of magic user Star's tutor was. The man pulled on his gloves as Gratham began doing breathing exercises to build up his casting potential.

"Circulation of the body is very important. Poor blood circulation and the body becomes numb and slow. Poor air circulation and the mind becomes clouded and foggy. Always make sure to calm yourself and breathe before a tense situation, it will help make sure you are at your best." Marco took his master's word to heart and forced himself to do breathing exercises every day before his workout. He switched back to Gavel, who was now pushing the glove down onto each of his fingers; flexing them to make sure the gloves fit properly.

The tall blond seemed at ease as he went about preparing. He turned to Gratham and both men squared themselves. The air shifted around the garden, becoming electric and causing the hair on him and Star's arms to rise.

"This is going to be good." Marco looked at Star to see her staring intensely at the pair, a fire had lit in her eyes and she was anxious to see who would win.

"Whenever you have finished preparing Gavel, the first move is yours." Gavel nodded and took a deep breath. Faster than Marco could track a spark sprang from his fingers, racing towards Gratham eventually exploding into a ball of fire. The old man sprang into the air, deftly avoiding it. Marco's eyes followed him as his teacher reached about twenty feet into the air, Gavel began backtracking, throwing his hands up and around, snapping with each pass. Sparks came from his fingers and reached Gratham in the blink of an eye, exploding before it hit him. Gratham dodged each of them easily, throwing his palms in a direction and flying in the opposite.

The old man finally landed and immediately sprung towards Gavel, keeping low to the ground. Gavel continued to send waves of fire towards the old man who simply avoided them. Pillars of fire sprang from around the teacher, but he continued making his way towards Gavel. Marco noticed Gratham's palms had taken on a purple aura as he reached his target. He shoved a palm towards Gavel and caught him in the stomach. The tall man flew back a few feet but managed to stay upright; taking no time to recover but instead bringing a gloved hand to chest height, poised to snap.

Before he could, however, Gratham threw his palm in front of Gavel's hand and the explosion went off in front of them, throwing them both backward. Marco saw a spark fly through the resulting smoke racing its way towards Gratham. He shouted at his teacher to move, but the older man stood there as the explosion went off. The flames were extinguished before they reached him and as the smoke cleared Marco saw that he had put his palm in front of the flames and somehow caused the air shimmered in front of him.

Instead of firing off more sparks, Gavel sprang forward and threw a kick at Gratham. Instead of dodging the old man threw his hands up and blocked it. Gavel merely used his momentum to spin himself around and throw another kick at his opponent. Gratham caught that leg too and even managed to dodge the punch that was thrown. Gratham proceeded to flip Gavel, spinning him in mid-air. Gavel somehow managed to slam his palm into the ground and break free of Gratham's hold. With each flip, he sent an explosion Gratham's way.

Gratham threw his palms up to guard against each explosion. Because of this, he didn't see Gavel launch himself behind one of his explosions. That hardly mattered as when Gratham blocked the last explosion he immediately leaned backward, causing Gavel to fly over and behind him.

They turned to face each other. Despite their rigorous fighting neither was breathing hard. They nodded to each other and in a sense disarmed themselves, standing up straight and walking towards their students.

Star leaped up and practically sprinted to Gavel, "That, was, AWESOME! I didn't know you could do something like that. Why didn't you tell me? We definitely have to train more now. Can I use your gloves?" Her eyes were wide with excitement, and her body could barely withstand its own limits. Marco smiled up at Gavel who seemed to be taken aback by the princess's sudden excitement.

"I have always been able to do that, I didn't tell you because it had nothing to do with our lessons. And no you cannot use my gloves, you'll set the whole castle aflame." Star began to pout and begging Gavel to let her use his gloves. Gratham walked over to Marco and smiled at the pair. He rested his hand on Marco's shoulder and seemed to give him a knowing wink, which only served as to confuse the boy.

He turned back to his friend and watched her excitedly beg Gavel for a chance to use his gloves. The tutor kept turning so that he wouldn't have to look at Star's face, and Marco couldn't blame him. The princess had a dangerous set of puppy eyes that could pierce through any iron heart. He was just glad it was someone else that she was using it on. His heart ached a bit at as he watched the two. Despite knowing who Gavel was and how nothing would ever happen, Marco just couldn't shake this feeling of anger and guilt. Gratham seemed to notice Marco rubbing his chest and chuckled, just giving Marco another smile whenever the boy looked over at him questioningly.

"Things have changed since she showed up hasn't it?" The question surprised Marco. He had never thought about it, but it wasn't a false statement was it? In all honesty, he could barely remember his life before Star. It was like he was just following a set path; never straying from it, always being the safe kid the one following the rules. Then Star had practically exploded her way into his life and suddenly everything had changed. The path set for him had broken into several and in some cases had disappeared entirely. Being the safe kid was no longer and option, she had given him that taste for adventure and holy cow was it addicting. And for the first time, he realized, he wasn't running from danger. He was on a different dimension learning from a master on how to fight better so that he could protect Star. His mind flashed back to the day when the King and Queen had visited him in his room, asking him to protect Star and guide her. He never knew he would get this chance to completely fulfill his promise.

A resolve set within him, he would do everything in his power to protect the girl that changed his life for the better. He broke himself out of his inner monologue and focused on the girl in question. She had stopped bothering Gavel about his gloves and had instead moved on to imitating his flying kick and various other moves.

Marco and Gratham walked to the pair. Marco decided it would be best to interrupt Star before she started kicking everyone within the garden, "Mr. Gavel, I wanted to ask you; how do your gloves work?"

Gavel smiled proudly, more happy to be asked how they worked rather than if one could use them. He showed the back of his hand to Marco, flashing the symbol that he had seen earlier. It was two overlapping triangles with their points going inward encompassed by two parallel circles. On one side was a sort of rounded fire and on the other side was a filled in figure of what looked to be a salamander. Star perked up again interested to learn how the gloves worked.

"They're called ignition gloves: made from a special cloth that sparks when I rub my fingers together. The symbol on the back is an alchemy symbol, it allows me to control the flow of oxygen around me and direct the fire wherever I wish."

Star's eyes lit up with their own kind of fire,"Please Gavel, can I please see them just for a teensie, weensie bit?"

"No you will just burn the entire castle down, hell maybe even the kingdom." Star began to pout again, which at that point Marco put a hand on her shoulder.

"He's not entirely wrong ya know, you did burn the castle down before you came to live with me." Star looked at Marco in mock surprise and brought her hand to her chest in dramatic fashion.

"Why I never, NEVER would burn down my own castle. I am shocked, shocked I say that you would dare insult me so."

"They're still doing construction in the East hallway from your last visit." Star swiveled to Gavel who refused to meet her eyes. She didn't say anything and instead went back to pouting adorably.

"Well I do think that it's time to move forward. Marco, Princess. Front and center if you will."

"Wait, what?" Marco exclaimed.

"Front and center, you two will spar and we will see where your progress is at."

Marco took a second to collect himself, doing his breathing exercises to calm down. He didn't want to fight Star; she was an absolute monster on the battlefield. He would be surprised if there would be anything left of him. The two of them moved to where Gratham and Gavel were standing, their teachers made their way to the benches; Gavel putting his undershirt back on.

Marco knew the basics of how to use magic; he had done it plenty of times on his own, at least he knew how to draw out his magical power. He had learned the basics of mana cost, how to shape a spell, and also the side effects of using too much mana. Consumed is what he had called it; when a magic caster used more mana than they have.

"The ground beneath you turns black, blacker than you have ever imagined. Tentacle like hands sprung up by the hundreds, all trying to grab you. Their hands disintegrating any part of your skin they touch. No matter how dire your situation is, no matter what danger you are in, do not be consumed."

His description was enough to ice Marco's heart. But right now he focused solely on the blonde in front of him. He closed his eyes and focused his mind on one image. He felt a warmth start in his abdomen and felt it spread out to his arms. Even though he couldn't see them, he knew his tattoos had begun glowing: Gavel gasped with amazement.

"Whenever you wish, you may begin." Marco opened his eyes and brought his right arm out. Pointing his palm at Star, Marco released a blast of energy. The blue light quickly turned into a horned narwhal and charged at the princess. She easily deflected it with a Narwhal blast of her own, looking at him in surprise.

"Hey! You stole my spell. You'll pay for that." She said with a grin. With an incantation she shot a group of pink cupcakes at Marco; who while under normal circumstances would enjoy being showered with cupcakes, he knew very well their explosive potential.

Marco ducked under the blast and released another wave of energy. Copying his friends spell, the blue wave turned into blue cupcakes and launched itself at her. As it was, Marco didn't know any of his own spells. He imagined that there were plenty that Gratham could teach him, but at the moment he settled for copying his friends spells.

Wave after wave of pink and blue energy crashed against each other. Marco continued to match Star, almost as if he was predicting her every move. His plan was to frustrate her until she started haphazardly shooting spells at him. It was working, the fact that he could effortlessly match her spells seemed to dawn on the blonde princess; and it showed in her snarling face. After a few more clashes of energy her calm demeanor broke and she started waving her wand in the air wildly. Marco failed to match her pace and ferocity and began dodging out of the way of the spells. As he came up from one of the dodge rolls he stared right at a cupcake that was zooming towards his face. Bringing his hands up to protect himself he waited for the resulting impact but felt nothing. Looking up he was a blue disk hovering in front of him, protecting him from Star's onslaught. But his shield was already failing; cracks forming from the center outward. He readied himself to dodge again when his shield broke, but the onslaught stopped before it could happen. Marco and Star stood staring at each other both panting from the effort of attacking and defending. He waited for her next move; as drained as he felt he didn't want to exert any unnecessary energy.

Star let the arm holding her wand drop. Marco felt a sense of fear when he looked at Star. There was an eerie calm about her, like moments before a hurricane hit landfall. She smiled at him and brought her wand up to her face, its star glowing a deep pink. Marco readied himself, putting his right side forward, ready to leap but also ready to put a shield out.

The pink energy continued to glow ominously before extending upward, out of the wand. The light formed into a familiar shape, that of a sword. She brought the sword lower so that her hands were down to her hips and the blade was level with her nose.

"Your blade boy. Remember what you have learned." Gratham's voice seemed to ring around the entire courtyard. His stomach burned, almost as much as Star's eyes did, as he reluctantly reached for the blade hanging on his left side. Unsheathing it, Marco held it out in front of him readying himself. He hadn't had as much sword practice as Star did; if he could somehow disarm her and force her into a hand to hand then he would have a chance at winning.

Gathering himself once more, Marco took the offensive and launched himself at Star. Running forward he swung his blade downward from left to right. Star easily blocked it and twisted her blade to cut down on Marco who twisted his as well to block it. Their blades locked leaving them staring at each other face to face.

'Her eyes' Marco jumped back from Star. 'Her eyes, were red' he thought to himself. He didn't get much time to think about the change as Star charged at him. Her slashes were just like her spells: powerful and fast. Marco barely had enough time to block one before another hit him. Every hit was like a truck, shaking his arms to the point where he felt like they were going to snap. He could see her eyes again: red, crazy, hungry. This wasn't a spar anymore she was out for his blood. He had wronged her but he didn't know how.

A whisper in his ear sounded, "This is all your fault" and he yelped and jumped backwards. Star lunged at him again, making to stab him in the stomach with her pink blade.

'NO!' he attempted to scream out as he kept her sword at bay but his mouth refused to move move. He couldn't see anything else anymore. The rose garden was gone, they were fighting in a dark foggy area. Star kept pressing her attacks. Slash after slash, she attempted to overpower him and it was working.

'It's not my fault, it's not my fault, it's not my fault." He managed to scream out. With his outburst, Star smacked the sword out of his hands. His eyes shut in fear and he did the first thing he could think to do, he pushed his hands out and shoved her away. A blast wave burst from him causing all to go silent. When he opened his eyes he saw a blue dome surrounding him, and Star frozen in front of him.

She was motionless, leaned back as if she was falling with a shocked look on her face. Everything within the dome was stuck in place. Her wand was inches away from her hand just as lifeless as she was. Marco moved towards her with ease he didn't know what to do, he was afraid to touch her in case something bad happened.

He looked towards Gavel and Gratham expecting them to be frozen in place too, but they simply walked through the dome as easily as Marco did. They didn't say anything as Gavel went to Star and Gratham walked over to Marco. Gavel positioned himself behind Star to catch her, and Gratham placed his hands on Marco's shoulders.

They looked each other in the eyes and Gratham mimed breathing to Marco. He did the breathing exercises that the old man had taught him and could feel the magic within him subsiding. The blue dome retracted back into Marco, releasing Star from its hold. When it had passed back over her she fell into Gavels arms, confused.

"What, what was that?" she asked looking at Marco who stared at the ground, unresponsive.

Gavel checked on Star, patting her down and asking her questions such as what day it was and what was her name. Gratham checked on Marco as well, making sure that he hadn't sustained any serious injuries and that the boy was overall okay.

He spoke to Star as he checked on Marco, "That was a containment-field spell. They are most often used to protect the caster or to trap an enemy. The most common types simply provide a barrier that cannot be passed through. More advanced types, such as the kind we saw just now, can freeze their target in place." Finished with his checkup, the mentor grabbed Marco by the shoulders and looked him in the eye, "Did you intend to cast that spell Marco?"

The boy looked up at his mentor, his eyes still distant, "No, no I just…" he trailed off. Gratham nodded and turned to the others.

"I think it would be best if we end our lesson for today." Gavel recognized the look in Gratham's eyes and nodded.

"Yes I think you are right. Come Star let us leave them to their training." Star let Gavel lead her back to the castle. She turned to look back at Marco, he was being led by Gratham back to the tower. The look he had in his eyes when they were sparring. She had never seen that look in him before, as if he was afraid of losing his life. But they were just sparring.

"I think it would be best if you let him rest tonight." Gavel said, catching her attention. "I don't know what is going on within his mind, but I think it would be best if you leave him with his thoughts tonight." Star nodded quietly. She didn't know what was going on in Marco's mind either, but that made her worry for her friend. They had spent months living together, talking every day. Her not knowing what he was thinking was a new feeling for her and it scared her. No she didn't know what was going on within her best friends mind, but there had to be something that she could do to help.

They were back in Grantham's tower. The old man didn't ask any questions, he didn't scold Marco, he didn't say anything in fact. He sat Marco down at his desk and made them some tea. Marco sat there holding the cup and saucer, afraid to even move while Gratham just stared at him.

"How long have you been having the visions?" He asked in a calm voice.

"How did you know?" Marco asked holding his tea in both of his hands.

"Ever since you and the princess have come here there has been dark magic surrounding the castle. It's faint, but enough to warrant worry. So tell me, how long have these visions been going on?"

Marco looked down at his tea in shame, he felt like he was sitting in the principal's office being scolded. "They started when I got my powers. That night I was in the hospital and I had a dream." Gratham remained silent and stared out onto the garden as Marco told him of his nightmares. The boy told him everything, from his waking up in an empty space, to his battle with Star, even the two voices fighting for his attention.

When he finished his story, Marco took a large gulp of tea. He felt he could breathe finally. Just having someone else know about them made him feel that he wasn't alone anymore. He couldn't tell Star, even if she did know what they meant she would just worry about him. Gratham remained silent, leaving Marco to wonder what the old man was thinking. He decided not to interrupt the old man and continued sipping on his tea.

"These voices. Have you hear either of them before?"

"No, i've never heard of either of them before, but they both seem kinda menacing."

"Indeed. As of right now I don't know enough about them to warrant a hypothesis. However, my boy, be wary of these visions." Gratham turned to Marco with a sharp look in his eye, "They may be dangerous in a way that we do not yet know. I have no way of stopping them, but try not to let them affect you as much. To help, I think it would be a good idea for you and the princess to spar with each other at least thrice a week. It will certainly improve both of your training.

"For now, let us return to our own lessons." Gratham climbed down the ladder and left the tower, Marco following close behind.

"Hey, Gavel isn't Mewman is he?"

The old man chuckled, "Noticed that, did you? No, he's not."

"Then what is he? He can't be human right, he used magic."

"True and no he's not human. Gavel is an Elf, high elf to be exact. I'll let him bore you with his life's story. For now, prepare yourself."

Gratham aimed a kick at Marco who ducked under it. 'A high elf?' Excited, Marco began pestering the old man with questions about different races that he met and what they were like. All the while, dodging attacks and landing a few of his own.


End file.
